#all depends on if i put my thinking cap on and actually figure out how to put words together again after a month of illiteracy

[saetoru]

haven’t written in weeks and idk how to formulate words anymore but anyway before i log out again for the month here’s the in progress stuff coming for january

nerd! gojo fic

ex-convict! geto fic

gojo fix-it fic (i’m rewriting canon thank you 👍🏽)

#wow #i been so busy with final presentations for capstone #i haven’t even been able to read fanfic let alone write it #and then i read over a wip yesterday and i was like ??? how am i supposed to complete this idk how to write anymore #i’ll find a way #those ideas cannot die out they must see the light #anyway #i have a report to finish unfortunately </3 #see u all in january some time #maybe #all depends on if i put my thinking cap on and actually figure out how to put words together again after a month of illiteracy #byeeeeee for now

[eco-lite]

I’m once again returning to do god’s work by bringing you delightful moments from Spock’s World by Diane Duane.

[Text ID: “Spock was bent over [the Science Station], making some adjustment. ‘Readout now,’ he said, straightening and looking over his shoulder at the large, shaggy-fringed rock that was sitting in the center seat. Some of those glittering fringes stroked the open circuitry of the communicator controls in the seat’s arm. ‘Point nine nine three,’ said a scratchy voice from the voder box mounted on the rock’s back. ‘A nice triple sine.’ ‘Nice?’ said Spock. Jim raised an eyebrow: you could have used Spock’s tone of voice to dry out a martini.” End ID]

There’s a Horta crewman on the Enterprise now and they’re great!

[Text ID: “Still working on her doctoral thesis, Jim thought. Uhura was busy working on improving universal translator theory, mostly by taking the old theory to pieces and putting it back together in shapes that were causing a terrible furor in academic circles on various planets. Jim vividly remembered one night quite a long time ago when he had asked Uhura exactly how she was going about this. She had told him, for almost an hour without stopping, and in delighted and exuberant detail, until his head was spinning with phoneme approximations and six-sigma evaluations and the syntactic fade and genderbend and recontextualization and linguistic structural design and the physics of the human dextrocerebral bridge. The session had left Jim shaking his head, thoroughly disabused of the idea (and ashamed of how long he had held it) that Uhura was simply a sort of highly trained switchboard operator.” End ID]

Uhura continues to be a total badass and is amazing at what she does.

[Text ID: Chatroom title in all caps: “COMMON ROOM OPINION, INFORMED AND NON- RANTING AND RAVING PERMITTED NAMES NOT NECESSARY” Regular text: “It was one of the places he came to find out what his crew was thinking. Messages did not have to be attributed to a name or terminal, but they could not be private. The office of the common room system operator rotated through the crew, offered to various members on the strength of their psych profiles in areas like calm reaction to stress and anger. The common room syops tended to be closemouthed and dependable, the kind of person that others refer to as ‘a rock.’ (Once it had actually been Naraht, to the amusement of just about everyone.) Here tempers could flare, awful jokes be told safely, suspicions be aired, rumors be shot down. The common room was sometimes a peaceful place, sometimes a powderkeg. Jim never ignored it.” End ID]

The Enterprise has a dumpster fire chat room that has just as much shitposting and vitriol as twitter.

[Text ID: “Jim bowed over her free hand. ‘It’s been too long,’ he said. ‘It’s good to be back,’ Amanda said. ‘And in the middle of a party as well.’ She looked a little wry. ‘A little entertainment will be pleasant before the deluge.’ Sarek’s eyes flicked to Kirk, a considering look. ‘My wife speaks figuratively,’ he said, ‘in the tradition of her people. Deluges are not common on Vulcan.’ ‘My husband speaks circumspectly,’ Amanda said, just as dryly, ‘in the tradition of his.’” End ID]

Amanda and Sarek are as charming as ever.

[Text ID: “Jim was mildly surprised to see that to his other rank tags and decorations, McCoy had added a small, understated IDIC. ‘If I didn’t know you better,’ he said, ‘I’d think you were going native. When did you get that?’ ‘Today in the gift shop, when you were looking at the snowball paperweights with Mount Seleya in them. Tackiest things I ever saw.’ ‘Yes,’ Spock said; ‘they were imported from Earth.’ ‘You be quiet. We can’t let these people leave the Federation, Jim. At least not until they teach us how to make tasteful souvenirs.’” End ID]

Just this.

[Text ID: “There was Sreil, the burly, brown-haired biologist from the Academy, and T’Madh, a little bright-eyed woman of great age and curiosity, a computer programmer; and her son Savesh, who when asked what he did, said, ‘I am a farmer,’ with a sort of secret satisfaction that hinted he thought his job better than any of the more technical ones that the people around him held. Jim had to smile; the thought of a Vulcan farmer was slightly funny, even though there naturally had to be some. But the image of a Vulcan in coveralls, chewing on a stalk of hay, kept coming up and having to be repressed.” End ID]

I love Savesh the Vulcan farmer!

[Text ID: “’Jim,’ he said, ‘the best translation of nehau would be an old word: “vibes.” The feeling-in-your-bones that something gives you. It’s highly subjective.’ ‘Right. Go on, Savesh.’ ‘Well, Captain, I have heard numerous Vulcans say that losing the Federation and the Earth people would be no particular loss, because they had bad nehau, and that could not fail to affect us sooner or later.. But I must tell you that I find your nehau not objectionable at all; pleasant, even.’ End ID]

Vulcan wanting to leave the Federation because the ~vibes~ are off.

[Text ID: “His grasp of dialect and idiom as amazing for anybody, off-planet or on. He once reduced the President of the United States—then a ceremonial post, but one much loved by the people who lived within the old borders—to tears of laughter at a state dinner, by delivering a learned dissertation on computer data storage technology in a flawless Texan accent. The lady was later heard to propose an amendment to the Constitution to allow off-worlders to hold high public office, so that she could have him for her running mate in the next election.” End ID]

I would give anything to hear Sarek do a perfect Texas accent.

[Text ID: “—but when Amanda became annoyed over what she perceived as his smugness about being right, her eyes would flash and she would become splendidly insulting, usually in bizarre Anglish idiom that Sarek found as refreshing as it was annoying. She caused him to laugh out loud for the first time in many years when she told him, after a disagreement over the translation of the word for war, that he should only grow headfirst in the ground like a turnip. Later that month, when he was right about something again and made the mistake of not immediately down-playing it, she issued him with a formal malediction, wishing that the curse of Mary Malone and her nine blind orphan children might pursue him so far over the hills and the seas that God Almighty couldn’t find him with a radio telescope. Sarek laughed so hard at that that he entirely lost his breath, and Amanda panicked and started to give him cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which was useless, because his heart was somewhere other than the spot on which she was pounding. It took him nearly an hour to recover: he kept laughing. He had never been cursed like that before, not even by union leaders, and it was very refreshing.” End ID]

This dynamic is perfect, no notes.

[Text ID: “The next night they sat in the Rec Deck again, in the middle of a large impromptu party that was going on around them by way of celebration. The sense of relief in the ship was palpable. A group of about a hundred crewfolk, mostly human, had surrounded Spock earlier in the evening and sung ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow,’ accompanied by twenty crewmen on kazoos. Sarek had been given champagne.” End ID]

I really hope the TOS Enterprise has crew performances like on Next Gen. This kazoo band needs to be heard! Also, I can perfectly picture Spock’s annoyed-but-tolerant expression as he resigns himself to the kazoo serenade.

Thank you @dianeduane for making me laugh!

#star trek #star trek tos #spock’s world #diane duane #star trek books #star trek novels #spock #jim kirk #leonard mccoy #sarek #amanda grayson

[genderfluid-culture-iss]

for the baby genderfluid tips!!

this could just be me lmao, but DO NOT donate your fem clothes if you feel masc for longer than usual. or vice versa.

keeping a gender journal is something that can be really helpful to actually look back on and see how it changes (and also have proof of fluidity for when you begin to think "hmm actually im just a trans girl. nothing else." no, you probably aren't. you felt completely boy/nonbinary/etc just a month ago, and thats okay.)

basically it can be really hard to embrace that your gender is not static, especially if your gender stays stable for a slightly longer period. it took me so long to stop rotating between "im a girl always" "no, im a boy always" "actually, im nonbinary always" to just admit im genderfluid.

also, make genderfluid content. you don't have to show it to anyone, but sometimes it can really help to make poetry or art or write a story about being fluid and your experience in particular. i have an easy avenue for this since i write fanfiction (haven't published any of it yet lmao) and i just hit my favorite characters with my genderfluid beam and go nuts

follow people who are genderfluid, read genderfluid books, maybe join a genderfluid discord server (there are barely any, so actually maybe make one), try to make genderfluid friends. you are not alone, even though it sometimes feels that way.

if you have plushies or anything similar, make them genderfluid. i have a genderfluid squishmallow who i use she/they pronouns for, and a little husky that switches between he/she. idk it just helps sometimes lol

some of us change gender daily, or multiple times a day. some of us change gender only a couple times a year, or even less. we're all different and that's fine.

tips for presentation:

if you have a day when you can't figure out gender, go neutral clothing-wise

take little things to ease dysphoria if you switch when you're out somewhere (ex. lipgloss, eyeliner, leather bracelet, etc)

if you can, get pronoun pins. seriously, get pronoun pins (or a colored bracelet for subtlety or if you're not out). you can wear multiple at a time, you can switch them whenever you need to. you aren't a burden if your pronouns change. you don't have to stick to they/them to be easy for people.

if you can, get a versatile hairstyle that you can make suit your gender no matter what. if you cant, try to get a hairstyle that makes you the least dysphoric overall.

if you are organized enough, separate your clothes based on gender/what you feel comfy wearing on different days. do not pressure yourself to fit stereotypes. some people can only feel comfortable in skirts when theyre boys, so they only wear skirts on boy days. do what works for you.

it's kinda complicated, but if you can expand your vocal range to sound more fem or masc depending on how you feel, it can help. alternatively, vocal train to make it more androgynous.

keep makeup wipes with you in case you need to take it off part way through being out. basically, make it as easy as possible to be able to change/tweak your presentation if necessary.

this could just be me, but having lots of hoodies in different colors and styles will save your life

sometimes you might have "blender days", which is what i call it when your gender feels like its in a blender in a bad way and you can't tell at all what it is, everything feels wrong, it's changing like every 10 minutes, etc. tbh on these days all i can do is put on sweats and a hoodie and feel dysphoric. listen to music if it helps. do a hobby.

non-clothing items can help a lot. a blue tshirt and jeans can be whatever you want it to be based on what you wear it with. (ex. sneakers/ballet flats, leather bracelet/sparkly necklace, baseball cap/eyeliner)

and lastly: YOU ARE AMAZING. keep being you, keep being incredible, and know that being genderfluid is a gift. be proud to be who you are, have fun, know that you are unique and special and wonderful!! we're ever-changing, and that's awesome. you are precious. i love you.

🩷🤍💜🖤💙

dont wanna link my tumblr, but my name is kiley if you want to attach a name to this!

Okay this is a lot more than I was expecting LMAO /pos

Thank you so much for this Kiley <33 I’ll start working on a masterpost with links to all this.

#genderfluid #genderfluid culture is #genderfluid culture #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq+ #anon #anonymous #Genderfluid tips #Baby genderfluid tips #Genderfluid help

[qmorningcrew]

dump all your ideas abt ur summer camp au i want to hear it

ahhhhhh first of all anon ily <333

here’s my ideas for the summer camp au so far :)

- it’s called quesadilla summer camp (im so creative lmao)

- the camp was created on an experiment. if it went well, they would implement the plans on a larger scale. (what’s the experiment? it’s assumed it has something to do with crossing the language barriers but no one actually specifies)

- all participants get college scholarships

- but the whole thing is really badly executed? like it just does not have the set up or functionality of a normal summer camp

- there’s just very little supervision or guidance

- the camp is run by some version of the duck, and they’re very uninvolved which leads cucurucho and zero to just Not Care.

- counselors are rubius, cucurucho, and the code entity

- the code entity goes by zero

- zero really doesn’t talk but they all learn pretty easy it’s how fucking awful of an idea it is to piss them off

- cucurucho and zero are they/it besties

- rubius is the same age/around the same age as the campers, cucurucho and zero are older

- sometimes one the campers walks into their cabin and sees an entirely new person in their cabin, which is normal. they switch cabins constantly

- the first week people just keep. randomly wandering off. “where’s wilbur?” two hours later wilbur walks out of the woods with a rock. (not even like a cool rock. it’s just a normal fucking rock)

- phil’s the mom friend. but he’s still a disaster. he’s just the only one with any shred of responsibility. he’s also just got an aura of trustworthiness that makes everyone trust him with their problems

- fit is just. so chill

- he also just? always has what you need? “yeah sorry it’s a bit hot in here, a screw that seemed important fell out of the fan earlier so we haven’t turned it on yet” “oh! i think it’s in here- nope screwdriver’s in the left pocket, where did you say the screw was?”

- dan just kinda disappears for a bit? cucurucho tells the campers he went on vacation but they don’t entirely believe them. dan comes back a little different.

- spreen is always either starting chaos or nowhere to be found

- quackity manages to keep putting himself in the middle of like every problem whether he’s involved or not

- however charlie pretty much is always involved

- luzu is had DID and arin is an alter

- luzu does know about arin but he was just diagnosed and is still figuring it all out

- roier flirts with everyone (except jaiden, he respects her boundaries)

- wilbur brought his guitar with him and sings at the campfire some nights

- charlie only joins in on the meme songs

- jaiden finds the most. random shit. “hey guys i found $20 stuck to the bottom of the picnic table with a piece of gum” “oh dude look! a patch of four leaf clovers!” “woah look at this cool bottle cap i just found!”

- maximus is a conspiracy theorist but in like a, hey this actually genuinely makes sense kind of way

- bad is terrified of spiders

- he saw one in the bathroom of his cabin and was completely moved in to a different cabin within seven minutes

- roier finds this hilarious

- foolish and vegetta are dating. no one knows how they got together or when they got together. if you ask either of them, you’ll get two completely different answers

- the brazilians join two-ish weeks in

- they all arrive together in a bus together and have already formed a Friendship on the journey there

- the bus was almost set ablaze 4-6 separate times (depends on your definition on separate)

- there is an extremely done cucurucho driving the bus

- forever sees phil and immediately turns to tell felps how that is the man of his dreams

- mike and pac are inseparable. they’re just kind of always within the vicinity of each other.

- cellbit, bad, foolish, and maximus attempt to take over the camp together. it doesn’t go as planned.

#im so tired lmao i would not be surprised if half of this is incomprehensible #qsmp #qsmp au #qsmp summer camp au #qsc #twig speaks

[sineala]

Hi there. I don't know if anyone has asked this before, but can you recommend some Captain America/ Iron Man tittle that you find actually good, ones that characterize Steve and Tony right? I just love them both and want to know about them.

Do you mean Steve and Tony together in the same comic, or Steve and Tony separately as individuals? If you mean the two of them together, I have a relatively recent post listing what I feel like are the important Steve/Tony comics.

If you mean the two of them separately... I can recommend that.

I think for Tony, if you want to know about him as a character, I would say you should start at the very beginning and read some of his appearances in Tales of Suspense, starting with #39. You don't have to read all of it, but I think reading at least some of it would give you an idea of who he's intended to be.

The idea behind the character is that he was meant to be a tragic figure -- he's this rich, powerful, brilliant, handsome guy who everyone envies, but he secretly has a heart condition that he's pretty sure is going to kill him, that puts significant limitations on his life and causes him a lot of pain. But he goes to a lot of trouble to make sure everyone he knows thinks he's just this carefree playboy enjoying the good life, and then he goes home alone and usually ends up crawling across the floor while clutching his chest in agony so that he can get to the wall to plug in his chestplate and charge it up so maybe he won't die today.

And, y'know, he's also secretly a superhero, so he's also out there nearly killing himself while trying to save the world, which is a thing that no one knows he's the one doing, but he's just doing it because it's the right thing to do. He's also using his money to save the world in a different way, just helping people, because that's also the right thing to do.

For me, Busiek's Iron Man's run (IM v3 #1-25) is one of the runs that best captures this about Tony. He is a genuinely good human being. He also gets beaten half to death by most of his villains, so it captures that element of the character, but he is a good and kind person who knows how privileged he is and he genuinely wants to help people in any way that he can. The very first issue of the run -- which is generally an issue where the writer wants to establish what they're doing with the character -- features Tony ditching the fancy gala he's at to go do something really important, which is go check out one of the construction projects the Foundation is working on, something that's really going to help people.

Like, that's who Tony is. He's a good guy. He also knows the security guard's name. That wouldn't be a thing you'd expect someone in Tony's position to know, and he absolutely does. He always knows his employees' names. He really does care.

Obviously Tony's characterization has changed over the years, depending on the writer, but this is really who he is, to me. (I also think the current Iron Man run is doing a really good job conveying this about him.)

Steve is a little different, because I think he's often written at either end of a continuum, where they're both still him, but they're him in very different ways. Steve's Captain America, and there's a sense that when he's at his best he's embodying everything about the ideals of an entire country, everything people would want America to be. So a lot of his comics will often feature him earnestly making speeches about liberty and freedom and patriotism and so on, and this is what you'll see him doing in a lot of classic comics.

Like, one of everyone's favorite Cap moments is this speech in What If #44, which is a universe where Steve wakes up much later than he does in canon, only to find that there is a false Captain America turning people against each other. And he makes a speech that convinces everyone he's the real one.

So there are a lot of classic Captain America comics where Steve does and says things like this. Off the top of my head, if you want a quick sampling of classic Cap, I'd recommend the Stern/Byrne Cap run. It's only nine issues (#247-255) and features Steve fighting some classic villains in his usual style, as well as the milestone issue #250, in which he explains that it would be wrong for him to run for president.

More modern Cap runs have often opted to focus on the more human side of Steve Rogers. And while there were certainly a lot of classic Cap comics that focused on Steve's World War II adventures punching fascists, the more modern take is that Steve is a soldier who has definitely Seen Some Things and experienced the horrors of war. The modern run in this vein that is probably the best regarded is Ed Brubaker's run -- Steve is dead for about half of it, but don't let that stop you -- that brings back Bucky and introduces him as the Winter Soldier and generally is a comic that puts Steve through a lot of pain (and then, you know, murders him).

So it's a good run (although in fairness I suppose I should say that I skipped the middle of the run where Sharon got tortured a lot) and I think it's a good characterization of Steve in a way that's maybe a little more realistic as the psychological state of a human being who has lived the life that Steve has, than some of the earlier Cap comics.

But, like, I also like a Steve who looks like he has ever smiled a day in his life, you know?

So for me, personally, I like to split the difference, and I really like Mark Waid's Cap run. Waid wrote the Captain America: Man Out of Time miniseries, as well as a mid-90s Cap run (Cap v1 #444-454, Cap v3 #1-23, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty v1 #1-12) and then came back after Secret Empire in our hour of greatest need for a little more Cap (#695-704, although I'd recommend stopping at #700). I feel like Waid's Steve is a Steve who can give speeches without sounding corny about it, and when I read his run I understand why people follow him, and he's serious, but also he clearly knows how to lighten up.

This is Steve sacrificing himself to save the world in #700:

(Don't worry, he's fine. Well. Not this version of him. But generally speaking, he's fine.)

But he also seems like he knows how to have a good time and be happy; here, I just grabbed the first fun panel I found, in Cap v3 #2, with Steve talking about how much he loves his shield:

So, yeah, that's my pick.

I think the moral here is that I think 1998 was a good year for Avengers comics. Which is kind of funny, because in 1998 I was actually only reading X-Men.

#replies #alice1939

[myveryownfanfiction]

18+ MINORS AND THOSE WITHOUT AGE IN BIO DNI

Warnings: smut, threesome, light bondage, swearing, drinking, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it kids)

AN: Thanks @illiana-mystery for helping me figure out how to do this one. Story below the cut.

I blinked as I looked at Jake and Flynn tied to the chairs with gags in their mouths. Rushing to help them get out of whatever situation they had gotten themselves into, my mind whirled to life. Impure thoughts continued to run through my head as they bickered on the drive back to the Annex. Sighing, I shook my head and made up my mind.

"You guys want to come back to mine for a night cap?" I asked. Flynn and Jake looked at each other before turning back towards me.

"Why not?" Jake said with a shrug. Flynn nodded.

"After the day that we've had, we definitely deserve it." Flynn agreed. We checked in with Jenkins before filtering out to my car. "So aside from coming to our rescue, how was your day (Y/N)?" I shrugged and caught his eye in the rearview mirror.

"Mainly just helped Jenkins with the research for a bit. Cassie needed some help as well so we worked a bit on whatever it was she was working on." Jake shivered and I knew that he figured it was something to do with magic.

"Must have had you on your toes today." Jake offered. I nodded.

"You two did." I teased. "Jenkins had me monitoring what was going on with the two of you in case something went wrong." Jake and Flynn shared a look.

"Sorry you have to babysit us." Flynn said quickly. "We don't mean..." I waved my hand at him.

"It's fine. I'd much rather go pull you out of trouble than have to run to save Ezekiel from danger." I shrugged as I pulled into my parking spot. The three of us trailed up to my apartment. I pulled three beers out of my fridge. "Make yourselves at home." Flynn nodded and flopped down on my couch. Jake rolled his eyes and sat on the loveseat. I sat down next to Jake and tapped the neck of my bottle with his.

"Bottom's up." Flynn joked as he tipped the bottle back. Jake and I took a sip before settling back against the couch back.

"If I proposed something, how weirded out would the two of you be?" I asked after drinking half the bottle. Jake shrugged and Flynn looked over at me with a smirk.

"Depends on what it is." Jake said. "Maybe we will, maybe we won't." Flynn shrugged and nodded.

"When I walked in on the two of you tied up, I couldn't get it out of my head. Kind of wanna do that in a more...fun...way." I said. Flynn's eyebrows went up and Jake smirked over at me.

"Oh. So that's how you feel about us?" He said. "We were thinking you were trying to keep things in the professionally interested category."

"We thought we'd have to make the first move." Flynn said. I looked between the two and stood up abruptly.

"Come on. Into my room. Now." I started walking through my living room to the bedroom. Flynn and Jake trailed behind me. I started going through my nightstand for two ties and turned back to the boys with a smile on my face when I found them. "Who wants the top and who wants the bottom?" Jake laid down on my bed and smirked at Flynn.

"I'm going with doing the actual fucking." Jake said. Flynn frowned but started to undress. Jake sat up to do the same. I smiled at the two of them and ran the ties through my hands. "What are those for?" I smiled at Jake as he tossed his underwear to the floor.

"I said I had thoughts about the two of you tied up. So I'm tying you up." Jake nodded and looked over his shoulder before laying down again. He put his hands above his head and I stepped up to tie him to the headboard. Running my hands over his biceps, I bit my lip to stop from moaning.

"Fuck Jake." I let out. "You hiding all that beneath those clothes?" Jake chuckled as I ran a hand over his pecs. "Damn." Flynn watched from the side and swallowed. My eyes went wide and I immediately whistled. "Fuck me." I let out. Flynn blushed as I walked over to run my hands down his chest. "You do not disappoint Flynn Carsen. Putting nerds to shame." Flynn chuckled and I helped him kneel on the bed. I sat back on Jake's thighs to gauge the right height for Flynn. I patted his shoulder as I got up to tie his hands behind his back. Flynn tugged on the tie to test how far he could go.

"We're ready whenever you are (Y/N)." Jake said. I nodded and started to strip. Two sets of eyes watched me as I did, making me a bit self-conscious. Flynn's eyes widened and Jake let out a low whistle. I blushed and gave a small bow before climbing onto the bed. I settled myself over Jake and looked over my shoulder at him.

"Anytime anyone wants out, just say so." I said, nerves starting to creep in. Both nodded at me before I sank down on Jake. We both moaned and Flynn smirked at the two of us.

I leaned forward and took Flynn into my mouth. He moaned and leaned back slightly, thrusting into my mouth on accident. I chuckled, making Flynn moan again with the vibrations. I tapped Jake's thigh and he started to thrust into me, drawing another moan out of me. I started to lick along Flynn's length as Jake ground his hips into me. We set a steady rhythm that had the three of us periodically moaning in unison. I felt Flynn twitch in my mouth and sucked hard on his length, taking as much of him as I could before he let out a long moan and came. I shuddered as I reached my climax, letting Flynn slip out of my mouth with a cry. Jake chuckled behind me and thrust hard into me. A few pumps later, he came with a grunt. I slumped forward against Flynn while I caught my breath.

"Wow." I breathed out as I dismounted Jake. He hissed at the feeling and I untied Flynn. I rubbed his wrists as he sat down on the edge of my bed. Running a hand across his shoulders, I smiled as he shuddered. Untying Jake, I made sure to not just rub his wrists but his biceps as well since he had clearly been straining against the tie. "Everyone good?" I asked as Jake sat up. I crawled on the bed between them and put an arm around both their shoulders. Tugging them close, I leaned into both of them.

"All good." Jake confirmed. Flynn nodded.

"I say we do that again. But this time we switch?" Flynn looked over at Jake who nodded.

"You know I need to know how that mouth is." He laughed as he leaned in to kiss my temple. "We most definitely are doing that again."

#christian kane #christian kane x reader #christian kane imagine #christian kane fanfic #christian kane fanfiction #noah wyle #noah wyle x reader #noah wyle fanfic #noah wyle fanfiction #noah wyle imagine #jacob stone #jacob stone x reader #jacob stone imagine #jacob stone fanfic #jacob stone fanfiction #jake stone #jake stone fanfic #jake stone fanfiction #jake stone imagine #jake stone x reader #flynn carsen #flynn carsen x reader #flynn carsen fanfic #flynn carsen fanfiction #flynn carsen imagine #the librarians imagine #the librarians fanfic #the librarians

[lastcrush]

wanted plots for all of my muses !

by no means is this comprehensive and some plots are vague so we can build on it more. you can consider this a jumping off point for when we're plotting and we're having trouble coming up with something. source link is my muse page for reference. absolutely ask more about a muse if you want more information. while most of these are slice-of-life plots, i will absolutely give supernatural, fantasy (modern or historical), & crime verses upon request.

PLEASE LIKE AND/OR MESSAGE ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ANY OF THESE PLOTS. while i recognize that the same plot will be written out differently with a different partner, i’ll likely cap each plot at a maximum of three depending on how much attention certain ones get.

jester flores / drummer / 24 / they+she

rival band shenanigans... battle of the bands... maybe theyre on the same label and there's stress from that...

oops sorry for accidentally punching you in the face in the mosh pit meet ugly

secret relationship where the rest of the band hates the other person because they're from a rival band/label but that won't stop jester from seeing your muse

lennox greaves / f1 driver / 25 / he

rival driver ... some rivals to lovers stuff here ... fated 2 be mortal enemies and yes they do hate eachother. yes they do constantly find eachother during the after parties. yes they are nearly killing eachother on the track but thats ok

pr relationship <3 sorry i do love them...

ummm someone in another sport ? idk we can build from that..

i think nox should actually win a race once. maybe he gets transferred off of sentinel onto your muse's team. as a little treat. maybe we can combine this with the first one.

beejal shah / novelist / 26 / any

your muse Knows that bee’s mom is a high profile actress and that her dad is a politician. they know. they plan to bring this to light for some reason. maybe they dont like her. maybe they don’t like her parents. whatever. chaos. 

REALITY TV SHOW. i havent seen any but i just think it’d be fun to write bee in that type of environment considering how awful she can be. will likely require a lot of plotting. romantic or platonic or antagonistic i want them at eachother’s throats i want them to kiss i want them to be messy.

fellow authors :3 maybe they write in the same genre. maybe they write in completely different genres. r they friends? r they enemies? who knows. we'll figure it out

haha someone who is a fan of both bee's shitty webnovels and her published works and is putting 2 & 2 together .. very close to figuring out the connection .... drama !

james adeyemi / museum curator / 27 / she+they+he

idk i think it would be fun to have recent exes that just keep running into eachother and okay fine we can try again one (1) more time except it’s a mess and their friends r begging them to stop going back to eachother but they Can’t. anyway.

fellow phd candidates.... i think she should have someone to suffer with.... meet cutes i think would be fun with this

people who work at the museum with her !! archaeology nerds perhaps. maybe they dig too deep into something that's delivered to the museum and it ends up being supernatural in nature. maybe your muse is supernatural in nature.

faking dating for no fucking reason. maybe it turns into a fake engagement. hell, let's do a marriage of convenience.

percival nwodo / law associate / 28 / they+he

right so remember when i said he's based on mik.e r.oss from suits. :3 i do think a m.ike / r.achel type of ship would be fun... to me personally ..... percy should suffer, really, is what im saying. tl;dr y/m also works at the same corporate law firm and after a while of a push/pull type thing with percy, they get together ! and then much too late y/m finds out that percy has been essentially lying about who he is (re: does Not have a law degree and has never gone to harvard). angst ! fun !

alternatively, maybe indulge me in a little superhero type plot .... yeah lets pull a daredevil <3 percy & y/m run a shitty law firm together and percy is a masked vigilante at night.

shion iwasaki / medical examiner fellow / 29 / he+xe+she / half-ghoul

supernatural that has been a supernatural creature for longer and helps shion understand what he is (a ghoul) and is just genuinely nice to him and wants to see him survive

a hunter that works in the same supernatural hunting organization that his family does and is tracking him down. why? angst <3

supernatural that sees shion, a brand new half-ghoul, as an opportunity / something to exploit. maybe shion is exactly the perfect alibi they need because he's found himself investigating supernatural deaths now. idfk.

kazuharu miya / bodyguard + underground fighter / 30 / he / werewolf

sorry i am by design a sucker for bodyguard/person that they are guarding ships. give. additional reasons for giving me this : the who did this to you trope.

for you historical fantasy nerds : let haru be your muse's loyal knight. perhaps they met when haru was young and ur muse was never meant to be next in line to the throne but things happened that propelled y/m into the role of the kingdom's ruler and who better to have by your side than your childhood best friend who will take a sword for you without question?

also a sucker for people bandaging haru's dumbass up after fights.

ummm supernatural things... vampire from the clan that killed his family maybe.

naomi furukawa / private investigator / 34 / he+they

they met years ago when naomi was still in the fbi and were partners (i mean literally, they worked together, but they could have been partners). your muse is considered dead. while naomi is working a case as a PI he comes upon something that leads them to find your muse, alive. cue angst heartbreak reconnection

haha your muse is a criminal. naomi is tasked with finding them/taking them down. he thought this case was going to be small and easy but it quickly unravels into something much bigger than expected. game of cat and mouse. at eachother’s throats. one of them always one step ahead of the other.

you: give me a superhero/powered character. me: gives you a PI that is hired to investigate something that said powered person is involved in. chaos <3

nuri jeong / actor + stuntperson / 35 / they

dysfunctional celeb couple

your character does not know who nuri is and nuri is absolutely fucking elated by that. can be platonic/antagonistic

ldr :') they were together for a year and then your muse has to move for job or family or something else 12 timezones away and nuri can’t go with them because they have their own responsibilities here so they decide theyll try this LDR thing and for the first few months its going great even if it means theyre both sacrificing sleep and their health but then it starts getting a little worse and they dont call as often and theyre starting to have doubts and one of them decides enough is enough and goes on a little trip to see the other without telling them and thats as far as i got

december kelley / event photographer / 25 / they / vampire

ember meets ur muse at a wedding they are photographing (someone in the bridal party? grooms party? one of the people that is getting married? who knows.... heh...) and they hit it off... perhaps better than the marrying couple themselves

ember's gf that turned them into a vampire.... maybe she isnt dead ! maybe she went into hiding. whatever. ember's pissed now because how dare you turn them into a vampire and then abandon them?

wedding cake baker... idk its just fun to me...

lochan rao / researcher + professor / 37 / she+he

okay stay with me here. give me lochan's ex-fiancé. the fiancé broke it off because they thought she wasn’t giving them enough time. they find eachother again. lochanwants to get back together because of course she does. whether your muse agrees or doesnt is up to you but personally i’d love to explore the fall of their relationship and the rebuilding of it and the hesitance and the angst and everything that comes with it.

LOL. REBOUND!!! she deserves a little bit of a rebound. maybe it’s only one night maybe it lasts a month. maybe they stay friends after maybe they don’t maybe they were always in love with her and she sees them as temporary.

your muse work’s in the same department as lochan at the same university (or hospital works too?? we're flexible) :) a little bit of a rivalry. for fun :) maybe its more :)

lochan and your muse made a pact when they were in their twenties that if they aren’t married by forty, then they’d marry each other. with 40 close, your muse contacts lochan after over a decade of not talking. they meet up, start talking again, discuss how the pact was silly and they fall in love anyway :)

wolfgang kestrel / music store owner / 39 / they+he

right so. hes in the witness protection program. would be fun and probably dangerous if someone who he knew in his previous life finds him, huh... perhaps even someone who was involved with the reason he's there in the first place.

bites my fist... oh what i wouldnt do for a single parent (wolfgang) / teacher thing..... hes very very understandably protective of his son okay..

ummm alternatively.... wolfgang is the teacher bc he teaches music at his store sometimes. maybe ur muse would like to learn music. maybe ur muse has a kid that wants to learn

celeste owuor / editor in chief / 40 / she

i'd be a liar if i said i didnt want some devil wears prada thing. but like with a newspaper. you get it.

idk . rivals? eocs of other papers? people that celeste fucked over to get where she is? we can figure it out

situationship. at their big age. yeah. celeste keeps putting work first and your muse is fed up with it because they rightfully would like a little morsel of attention sometimes.

silas montague / firefighter / 40 / he

you know ben warren and miranda bailey from greys? yeah. that

silas keeps saving y/m and is suspicious by how its always on His Shift that theyre in danger but whatever

angel flores / hacker / 42 / he+they+xe

your muse hires angel for their hacking services and you pose it as a No Big Deal thing thats totally fine but it ends up unravelling into something else entirely. haha whoops. now youre on the run together

your muse and angel are friends. or at least as close to friends as angel manages to get to others. you notice his typically immaculate memory starting to go a little... off.

he deserves some sci-fi things. perhaps some fantasy things, even.

i'm running on fumes i think angel deserves to kiss someone and that it should be angsty. as a little treat.

santiago leon / math teacher + anti-hero / 45 / he

literally anything to do with superpowers/heros/villains etc. idk it would be fun to me in particular !

someone who Also came back to life Changed and they bond over it <3

fellow teachers :3

your character has a teenager that santi teaches math to o7 ... would be fun if santi taught at a private school and ur muse was from a very popular / influential family. for fun . i guess

magdalena diaz / trauma surgeon / 48 / they+she

someone she met in group therapy / grief therapy when her long term girlfriend passed. these two are still in contact and have occasional meet ups just to check in on eachother and make sure the other is doing well. platonic or romantic idk up2you

idk. some grey's anatomy shit <3

vivianne park / horror writer / 50 / she

if you want horror plots you want anne. she's been plagued by the Horrors since she was a child and has used that as insp for her writings that are getting increasingly more concerning.

some ghost/monster hunting business would be fun :p

hey have you seen killing eve- [i am forcefully taken off stage]

#indie rp #indie oc rp #indie bi rp #if any muses r missing its bc theyre about to be removed.. sowwy #& KEVA : WANTED.

[gamebunny-advance]

Nice. (+ Self Reflection)

Well, so far at least 5 of you have looked at that thing, which is about 3 more than I expected, so the fic is doing much better than I thought it would, so thanks for taking the time to check it out \(^o^)/

But it is in my nature to not shut the hell up about my inner thoughts, so here they are (warning, contains spoilers to "Heart and Soul"):

The main idea of getting separated from your parent on an elevator is based on something I saw in real life once, except it was an escalator and probably didn't involve robo-security. I always wondered what happened to those kids afterwards...

I really should have cut more out. I feel like there's just a little too much "nothing" happening.

Is calling Tatiana, "Miss Quartz" annoying? The idea with the narration early on is that while it's a third-person narrator, it's still mostly from Yinu's point of view, so her inner thoughts inform the narration more often than not. I dunno, it's kind of inconsistent, and I'll probably stick to something more traditional if I ever rewrite this.

I feel like I accidentally set up the hairbands to be more important than they actually were. They were just supposed to be the cause of the inciting incident, just something to get Yinu to the elevator, but since the front end is the most heavy with description, it put too much emphasis on them. There was one version of the draft where instead of the bandage, one of the bands was her token of appreciation, but it didn't make sense to me to give 1010 a wearable keepsake when his physical body is routinely destroyed, and it would have been lost over time. Having him just lose the memories should have been sad enough on its own. He doesn't need to lose what she gave him too.

I hope that I fixed most of the instances of 1010 being referred to as "it". He's supposed to be an "it" up until he has a proper name, but in an earlier version, the pronoun would change depending on who was focusing on him, so Yinu and Neon J. use "he/him" because they recognize him as a person while Mama and Tatiana use "it" because they don't. I thought it was confusing, so I tried to fix all of them, but there might be some remnants left over. OTL

I feel like I could have cut all this action if I'd just thought to set this during a power outage instead of having 1010 be willingly defiant. I didn't think about this until I was taking a shower after posting. Sometimes shower thoughts are useful. If I ever rewrite this fic, I'll try that out to see if I can keep it saccharine through the entire run. I didn't mean to play "Gotcha!" and make it sad out of nowhere, but that's just where it felt like it was going. If they were both lost due to a power outage, then I think them sticking together and not being able to find the adults is a little more justified.

I should have checked if "Heart and Soul" is actually in the public domain first. I don't think it is, so it doesn't make much sense for 1010 to be programmed with it as one of his default songs. But the whole fic was written around getting to the scene where they play that song together, so I was willing to bend that plausibility to get there.

I wrote this imagining 1010 with his MKI design, hence the cap, but the implication is that he's currently a MKII and then gets upgraded to MKIII. So... yeah. If I rewrite this, I'm gonna have to fix that.

It's not that I don't like stories where the robot outlives its human companions, and it has to learn to cope with that, I just feel like in reality, it would be more likely that the robot either breaks down or loses their memories before their human companion dies. Machines are fragile.

I hope I didn't write Yinu to seem too young. I'm not exactly sure how mature that age range is supposed to be. At 8, she'd be the equivalent of a 2nd or 3rd grader, so I figure this is an age where she can understand complex thought but just not have the vocabulary for it.

#gbunny writes #it's got some problems but i still like it #i usually have such a hard time writing stories but this one came pretty easily #with some actual editing it could probably be a 7 out of 10 instead of the 4 out of 10 it probably is XP

[kissmetwicekissmedeadly]

For the ask game: 20, 21, 28, 36 💕

Hey Luna!! 🥰🥰 Thank you for these!!!

20 - Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?

Yes and no 😁 For instance when I take requests I prepare a neat little list of what i have to write with who, but I try not to remember all of it - I don't want the ideas to bombard me when I'm not able to work on them! I target one particular request, give myself a day or a few for something to form in my mind - I don't move on to the next until it's done and written. But as much as I'd like this to work all the time, i'm afraid i'm way more chaotic than that 😅 right now i'm working on multiple projects, not necessary all fics but all have to do with my blog! I'm veeery excited to share more already 👀❤

21 - Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what’s your secret?

I actually write on something that doesn't display wordcount and I prefer it that way! Not because I want to get better at eyeballing how much i've written but because I don't want to feel bad of a too low/too high wordcount. But yes, generally I can feel that "here we go again" moment when I'm too fond of an idea 😅😅

28 - Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

I've shared some here! But since we got on the topic of wordcount above, here is something else - if you want to add length to your fic, try focusing on the motion and take it from there. Something as simple as A throwing B a look - a knowing look, a testing look, a seductive look. Write the feeling it evokes, the reaction - mentally and then how it shows in their body language - and then the reply. Try adding those like little segments, without straying from the main purpose of the scene. If you want to assure they're tied together, frame them in dialogue - I love writing B's reply to the last thing A has said but only a few paragraphs later - I feel like it keeps the reader's attention on their conversation while building the atmosphere. Hope that helps! Again, nothing works the same for everyone so we should try to figure out things for ourselves! <3

36 - How do you come up with fic titles? What’s the one you’re most proud of?

Oh I was HOPING someone ask this!! I Love this part. I hate it too sometimes, but nothing beats that sweet satisfaction of coming up with the perfect title. I love putting methafors, phrases, word play, etc in my titles. The main thing I keep in mind is that a title is the first thing the reader would see - well, not on tumblr, we depend on thumbnails for that - so it's gotta make you want to read that fic. It has to show what's gonna happen in the fic, you know?

My most favorite fic titles: it sucks because it's better if you know the context... i will add for some

“Welcome to Saint Germain’s mansion, please have a fang-tastic night.” (crack with all ikevamp residents) it IS something that sebastian says in the fic, it's sorta just thrown in there in the middle and i love these OHHH IT'S THE TITLE! realizations)

The day my heart stopped (almost) forever (napo hurt comfort) - what else do you title a fic about someone's death day when they're actually reincarnated. i love how much it makes sense

A temporary truce (napo fluff)

Leave it to you to make a mess of me (napolington smut)

White-hot spotlight (rockstar napo smut)

DOOR BROKEN - USE OTHER DOOR (ikevamp crack) - you gotta have at least one full caps title the feeling is amazing

Arousing the rabble-rouser  (clavis smut) - i'm actually in a love-hate relationship with this one. it's too much. it's something clavis would name his own fic.

Yours Forever, A. & it's counterpart Forever Yours, F. (fenrir fluff and then smut) - the priceless moment of OHHH AND I CAN JUST NAME THE FIC THAT! AND THEN THE SECOND PART CAN BE THE SAME BUT SWITCHING THE WORDS AROUND! AND IT WILL BE WITH HIS FIRST LETTER! i love these two fics sooo much

Sharing is caring (and bad for my heart) (harr smut)

and I think that's it!!! I loved this last question so much!! Thank you again for sending me those Luna, I had so much fun!!! <33

> ASK GAME

[ answered: 8, 15, 39  🌸 7, 23, 28 🌸 3, 4, 10, 15, 19 🌸 26, 30 🌸 1, 14, 22 ] pls feel free to ask me again if you’ve already done so but are curious about more of those. and you’re never too late for this ok!!!

#ask game

[yupuffin]

Friendly opinion, if you don't mind! If you do, feel free to delete :) Your list seems a bit biased. Star Rail is objectively easier to grind for than Genshin, there's no local specialties to look for, every material you need is farmable through assignments except for Stagnant Shadows drops, and everything is all around faster to acquire because the fuel refills faster than Genshin's resin.

And this is with no mention of the fuel limit being what you get in 24h in Star Rail and the game saves up your reserve fuel beyond that, whereas Genshin forces you to spend resin at least twice a day if you don't want to max out. Also no mention of Star Rail's auto-battle feature that allows you to let the game grind for you while you do something else if you don't actually enjoy the grind. The Gacha system is the same for characters but night and day for weapons/Light Cones, with Genshin giving a 33% chance to get the 5* weapon you want and needing to lose twice before you're guaranteed, while Star Rail gives a 75% chance to get the 5* Light Cone you want and you're immediately guaranteed if you lose once. Also, no mention of the free standard 5* character of your choice after 300 standard warps in Star Rail?

I love both games, not trying to dunk on Genshin, just saying your Genshin bias is showing haha. Star Rail is objectively easier to enjoy casually than Genshin. If you don't see it after playing for a few weeks, you may burn out on it very fast :(

Genshin never made me grind for a week straight to beat any of the bosses. 😭

Also fair point about the banners, I have never once pulled on a weapon banner in either game, nor do I regularly wish on the standard banner aside from when I happen to obtain spare wishes, so in all honesty I don't pay as much attention to those. Pretty sure that even with how long I've been playing Genshin I haven't even hit 300 standard pulls in that game.🤷‍♂️ So there are definitely people out there who are more experts on how the banners work than I am. 😆

As for the part about resin/fuel regeneration, I think that's pretty subjective depending on someone's play style. Playing for just a few minutes in the morning and the evening on Genshin works pretty well for me. Star Rail takes significantly more time and attention for me precisely because of the faster regeneration, plus the cap being higher and the excess being saved; and then on top of that, with there being domains that cost less fuel to begin with (there is nothing you can do in Genshin that costs only 10 resin), at least by my experience, by sheer quantity, the number of domains and challenges I have to do is significantly higher. Again, this is just based on my personal routine and what works well for me. Mileage may vary.

I haven't used the auto-battle function, if only because I've had issues with wildly varying difficulty depending on the challenge. Some domains I can do with my eyes closed (figuratively); others I have to be very calculating and specific with the timing of my skills and bursts so my characters don't die, and I don't trust the decisions to be made automatically.

I really think there are so many aspects of these games that have no inherent good/bad value and whether it's easier or more difficult or less or more appealing or whatever is based entirely on personal preferences -- which is, again, why I formatted the post as a bulleted list instead of saying "Genshin is better because this, Star Rail is better because that." And I say this as someone who's had conversations with friends where I've said things like "I liked x video game for y and z reasons" and said friend would respond "Funny, those are the exact same reasons I disliked it." 😆I can think of an equal number of people who believe Star Rail is the better game and others who think Genshin is the better game, for a wide range of reasons that can be ostensibly mutually exclusive.

If someone wanted to put together like. a community-sourced project with a comprehensive list of all of the in-depth similarities and differences between the games, rather than a for-fun project developed by one person out of curiosity, they probably could come up with something pretty exhaustive and objective. I'm gathering based on this ask that there'd probably be some disagreements along the way depending on who prefers which game. 🤣

#ask yu #genshin impact #star rail

[purplewitch156]

Hi! I've always wanted to start book binding my favorite fics, but it seems like a really daunting task. I was wondering what programs you use? And how you do your type setting? And about how long does it take you to do one book? I've tried finding easy to follow tutorials (mainly for the type setting tbh, I've never done anything like that before), but haven't found any that I like. Thanks you! 😊

Hi! Binding fanfic can be very daunting! It took me forever to figure out how to print it in booklet form and I wouldn’t have been able to do it if my brother hadn’t been helping me. But once you figure it out, it’s actually pretty simple. I'm not sure how long it actually took me to make my books from start to finish. A couple of months? It's certainly not something you just bang out in a day.

This gets pretty long, so everything is beneath the cut. (Click the images to see them better.)

For my two books I used Microsoft Word. However, I’m excited about trying Affinity Publisher for the next project. It has a free month trial with apparently lots of youtube tutorials, but because I haven’t tried it yet, I’ll just focus on Word.

Note: This is what I did. I know @renegadepublishing has a very in-depth guide on typesetting. You could probably ask them for it or it may be on their discord. I had already started on my typeset by the time I’d heard about their guide, so I didn’t follow it, but it’s another option for you.

Margins

I already owned a book interior template back when I was self publishing, so I just copied the margins that were in it. I bet you can fiddle with this and find the margins you like best.

Go to Page Setup and click the small arrow to open the dialog box. From there change your margins, choose landscape, choose bookfold, and choose the number of sheets per booklet. For both of my books I did 16.

Next you’re going to click on the Paper tab and tell it what sized paper you’ll be printing on. I did letter (11 in by 8.5 in).

Next click on the Layout tab and tell it to start the section on Odd Page and check the boxes for different odd and even pages and different first page and fill out header and footer margins.

The Typeset

Under Page Layout, you’re going to click on Breaks.

There will be a drop down menu and select Odd Page. This is your half title page or full title page, depending on what you want to do. I recommend grabbing a random book off your shelf and looking at how they did the front matter. How many title pages did they put in? Where are they located? On an odd page or an even page?

Let’s say you want to do two title pages. Both should be on Odd Pages. There is no need to insert an Even Page break between them because the computer will know there is an Even Page between two Odd Pages, but you can insert a blank Even Page between them if it helps keeps things clear for you.

Continue to insert the appropriate Odd or Even Page breaks. For example, if you want to add a copyright page or an Other Things the Writer’s Written page. This is all up to you. You don’t have to put in any of that stuff. Just be sure that you’re giving these pages a designated break.

Now you’re ready to do Chapter One!

Make another Odd Page break and copy and paste the first chapter into the document. I know that sometimes copying and pasting from AO3 can be tricky, but I’ve only had two chapters where the italics didn’t transfer and I had to manually insert them, so I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Just keep an eye out for any formatting issues.

When it comes to formatting, have fun! Play around with different body fonts and chapter fonts. Add a Drop Cap if you want. To make things easy and consistent, use the Styles. You can modify them however which way you want, but be sure to choose justify. It’s also important to make Hyphenation automatic.

Now it’s time to make some headers and footers. You should have a bunch of text in chapter one. Pick a page and double click the header. The first page of the chapter will say it’s the first page header and then it will be Even and Odds. For the Evens I typed in my name. For the Odds I put in the book title. I’m actually having a hard time remembering how I did the page numbers, but I think I just clicked on the Page Number box and chose one I liked. For the headers and footers, you can alter the font and size. You can make them bold or italicized.

All the odd headers should be the same and all the even headers should be the same with the chapter title page not having a header or footer. (I think there might be a way of keeping the page number on the chapter page but I don’t know how.)

Now you’re ready to do Chapter Two!

Check the last page in the document and insert the appropriate page break, be it Odd or Even. This is important because it’s telling the program that you’re starting a new section and therefore there won’t be a header or footer on that page. The headers and footers will essentially skip over it and continue with the rest of the pages when you copy and paste the text in.

You’re going to keep repeating these steps until you get to the end of the book, always inserting the appropriate page break at the start of a new chapter. You should also do this if you want to add quotes or if the book has multiple parts and you want to make a page that showcases that without the headers or page number cluttering it up.

When you get to the end it’s a good idea to add two more blank pages. Congratulations! You did it!

When it’s time to print, make sure you tell it to print on the Short Edge. Double check that it’s on landscape, that the right sized paper is selected and that it’s printing double sided.

Remember when I said 16 pages to make a booklet? You don’t have to do 16. There are a lot of different options, but what this means is that the printer will print these sections so that when they are folded, the page numbers will match up. It’s super confusing to explain and I’m probably not doing a good job, but if you grab the first four pages out of the printer, and fold them into a packet, the title page will be on the front page and page sixteen will be the last page. It will continue to print this way with four sheets of paper needing to be folded into a booklet.

It's also important that if you're going to insert clipart, you'll need to tell word not to compress the images. This drove me crazy for a long time. Go to file, click options, click advanced and scroll down to where it talks about images.

I hope this is helpful and that you give bookbinding a go!

#typesetting #how i did it #microsoft word #bookbinding #ficbinding #tutorial

[starkskypines]

i choose you

pairing: Loki x gn!Reader

summary: You’re hanging out with the Avengers when the game turns into either/or questions and you have to pick between Steve and Loki, but you have the biggest, most secret crush on Loki, so you say Steve. Loki convinces you to change your answer. 

warnings: none 

word count: 2.6k

a/n: I wrote this for day 28 of swoon june: domestic. And this is the most swoon worthy thing i’ve written the entire month lol

                                                 ***

“Banana pudding or french fries?” Natasha asks.

“French fries,” Tony says immediately. Clint agrees. Loki nods his head in agreement as well.

“Pudding,” you say. Steve hums his agreement.

“Pudding is delightful,” Thor agrees.

“My turn.” Clint grins, and you and Nat share a look. You know what this means. It’s going to be another ridiculous question.

Clint turns his head in your direction. “This one is specifically for y/n.” You don’t know what question he intends to ask, but you can read that teasing glint in his eyes. “Spend the rest of your life with Steve or Loki?”

You laugh. “What? That’s not like the other questions.”

“Yes, it is. You just have to make a choice.”

“Make a choice?” You laugh again. It sounds uncomfortable to your own ears. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Am I?” Clint retorts. “It’s a simple question. Loki or Steve?”

You glance at Loki and find him still watching you from his place on the chair next to the sofa where you are currently perched on. You flick your gaze to the rest of the Avengers around the room, either on the same sofa as you or one of the other chairs. The movie night turned into truth or dare and then random questions as the night wore on, and now it’s two-thirty in the morning and clearly, your crush on Loki isn’t as hidden as you thought it was.

“I know who’d I choose,” Nat says. “It’s not a hard choice. We’ve all seen Steve’s muscles. Those rock-hard abs.”

“And his chiseled jawline,” Tony adds.

“C’mon, y/n, we all answered the questions. I don’t get why this is such a big deal.” Clint leans forward from the chair diagonally across from you.

You know hesitating isn’t good, but you also know that admitting to your crush on Loki is not good. You don’t want all the teases. You just want the feelings to go away and stop complicating your life.

“The hesitation says a lot.” Tony is staring at you now, and you’ve never been able to hide anything from him. And you’re lucky Nat decided to drink tonight, or she’d be reading all your secrets too.

“Fine. Fine. Cap of course. The whole star-spangled thing is... eye-catching.”

The laughs sound out and Clint smirks. You don’t look at either Steve or Loki as the game continues.

“Alright Thor, what’s your question?” Clint asks, allowing the game to continue, and you’re so grateful. The game goes for another hour, and you find the questions easier when they’re not about Loki and so it’s fun to make fun of the other Avengers and listen to their laughs. It’s so joyous here, and you’re glad to be a part of it.

“Well, I hate to be the responsible adult here, but I’ve got a 7 am meeting,  so let’s call it a night.”

“Tony? Responsible?” Nat laughs.

“Once in a lifetime achievement. You’re all lucky to be witnesses.”

The teasing continues as they leave the living room for their floors. You don’t notice you’re following Nat to the kitchen until you’re both putting your glasses in the sink.

Nat nods to you and leans forward. “You can’t fool me.”

You blink. “I’m tired. Talk in the morning?”

“Glad you know I won’t let this drop.” Her eyes soften. “But yes. I will let you sleep first, figure out your story.” She winks.

There’s movement from beside you. and you don’t have to look to know it’s Loki.

“Want me to walk you back to your room, or should Loki do the honors?”

You know you’re blushing. but you look to Loki and then back to Nat and glare at her. “I’ll let you walk me back.”

Loki moves quicker than you’re expecting, stepping toward you with a small smirk on his face, mischief and something softer in his eyes. “Wrong choice, darling.”

And oh, oh, you’re gone. Your breath catches and you don’t really think you can feel your heart anymore and is it possible to be instantly five degrees hotter? It’s his voice that does things to you that should be illegal and the way he moves toward you with such intent, and whatever he asks you know you’ll give it to him.

Your back hits the fridge, and you’re helpless to look away from his eyes, his cheeks, his lips, his chin, his eyes, his lips.

“Want to reconsider your answer to that question and a previous one tonight?”

Your heart is pounding in your chest, throat dry, and the chill of the fridge isn’t enough to cool you off.

“What?” You’re barely capable of coherent thought right now. Loki’s leaning in now and your brain is white noise and is your heart pounding straight out of your chest?

“Me or Steve?” You stare at his lips as they form those words and have to swallow before dragging your gaze back to his eyes, flashing green and entirely serious and oh, oh no, he can’t play with you like this. Doesn’t he know what he does to you?

“What would my answer change?” You aren’t breathing correctly anymore and you don’t know why you don’t just admit that duh, it’s Loki. It’s always Loki because it’s so obvious now as you can hardly control your reactions to him.

“Whether or not I kiss you goodnight.”

Your eyes go wide, your mouth falls open, and your heart stops beating, lungs stop working, brain stops processing.

Nat’s laugh is what brings you out of it. “I think you broke them, Lokes.”

Loki doesn’t take his gaze off you, and that’s what kicks your brain back online. He’s not laughing or smirking. He’s serious. Maybe just to satisfy his curiosity, but you know how few in his life actually choose him and you want him to know that you do. You choose him. Over everyone.

You bite your lip a second before taking a breath and answering.

“Of course it’s you. Didn’t want to admit it because of all the teasing so I said Steve. But it’s been you for a while now.” You look away and shrug, not sure you want to see the rest of his reaction as his expression didn’t change as you spoke.

“Of course?” And he sounds confused so you meet his gaze now.

“Wouldn't seriously choose anyone else.” You mumble out, embarrassed by it because Nat is still there.

“Let’s get you to bed.” Loki holds out his hand. It’s instinct to grab his hand, and it’s warm and calloused yet soft all at once, a contradiction just like him. And when Loki pulls you to his side and you can feel his body against yours, your brain blanks out again.

It’s a silent walk back to your door, and you wonder what Loki thinks of you now, but it’s three-thirty in the morning and you don’t quite care anymore so you keep his hand in yours as you step from his side to punch in your door code. (It helps you sleep better to have a code on your locked door, despite knowing that you are beyond safe in the Avengers tower.)

“Goodnight, darling.” He brings your hand to his lips and presses a kiss to the already warm skin, his mouth warm against your hand and it’s a moment that should remain unbroken forever and it seems to go on for just that long, but Loki raises his eyes to meet yours and then it’s over and his hand is slipping from yours and you step forward, not quite sure what you’re doing but knowing you don’t want this to be over. But Loki knows better than you what you want and as your fingers touch his face and your palms slide along his cheeks he’s already in your personal space with his face inches from yours.

“You’re tired, love.” And you know he’s right. You know that you’re only doing this because you don’t want this to go away in the morning, not because you’re ready. You’re not one to rush into things. And you definitely don’t want to rush this if tomorrow you wake up and it’s still here and Loki is still serious.

“You’ll be here in the morning?” you ask.

“You choose me. I’ll choose you.” His breath is warm against your cheek, and you sag forward into him letting your hands fall from his face and your head fall to his chest.

“You don’t know–”

“What that means.” He finishes your sentence and places a hand under your chin and tilts your face up so that he can look at you. “I hope you know what your words mean and that you don’t use them in vain because I would never lie to you.”

He’s serious, his words fanning across your cheek. And you swallow, bite your lip to keep from saying something unintelligible. You just nod quickly over and over again.

“The morning then.” He smiles, soft and warm, and leans down to press a kiss against your forehead. “Sleep now.”

He steps away, and you feel the absence of his touch down to your very soul. But it’s okay because you’ll see him in the morning. So you turn and you open your door and you don’t look back. For this to work, there has to be trust. And you trust that these late-night words and touches will mean so much more in the morning.

                                                     ***

The morning comes, and Loki finds you after breakfast right as Steve invites you on his morning run. Sometimes you join him, depending on how you’re feeling, and after staying up so late last night you’re not really feeling it, but Steve wouldn’t be Steve if he didn’t try to encourage you to go running with him, listing the benefits of running. And you know he’s right, that’s usually why you give in, and this morning you’re on the verge of giving in when Loki walks in and wraps his arms around you.

His arms slide around you, and the warmth of his body boils you alive. You’re blushing, and it only gets worse when you meet Steve's eyes and he raises a brow.

Loki rests his head on your shoulder, his dark hair tickling your neck. “Good morning, darling.”

His voice is still raspy from sleep, and you turn and his grip tightens and you’re so not okay right now but yep, yep, he’s still in his pajama top and bottoms with his sleep mussed hair and holy hotness, did he even brush it or did he just finger comb it, and oh, how you wish that it could be your fingers running through his dark hair. It has to be soft right? Oh, please let it be soft.

“I'll see you for our run tomorrow,” Steve promises and leaves the kitchen, and you’ve already forgotten what Steve was talking about, but you manage a nod and that’s all.

“You’re tense,” Loki muses.

“You–” You clear your throat. “You have your arms around me.”

Loki pulls away, leaving you feeling cold. He comes to stand in front of you. “I thought we’d agreed to do this.”

“Do what?” You shake your head. “I got like four hours of sleep. I don't really remember everything that was said.” You bite your lip as you move past him. That’s not entirely true because you remember most everything that was done and said by Loki, but you’re not sure of the meaning behind any of it.

“Oh.”

You turn back around once you’ve poured yourself a glass of water for your suddenly dry throat. Loki looks contemplative and a bit discouraged.

Loki looks up at you with a sudden grin. “Well, you said you’d choose me over Steve. Every time.”

You know you’re blushing again, and it’s ridiculous but all you can answer is, “Yes, that’s true.”

“And then I said I choose you. And that is still true.”

“Right.” You open and close your mouth for a moment, looking for the words. “And that means what exactly?” You take a breath. “Because for me it means that like I...I want to date...you.” You watch his reaction, and his smirk has you burying your face in your hands with a groan.

“Quite eloquent.” He comes up beside you and takes hold of your hand, the warmth of the contact shooting through you and causing you to raise your head. “But I appreciate the honesty.” He brings your hand to his lips and then releases it and steps away one step. He leans on the counter and looks up at you, blue eyes now serious. “I would like to woo you. make you mine. I believe you midgardians do call it dating.” He smiles.

You nod and proceed to stumble over your words. “Yeah, no, yeah, that, uh, is good.”

Loki laughs and turns his head away as he moves into a standing position.

You know your face must be redder than Thor’s cape at this point, and you feel like you’ve been laying out in the sun for far too long but you’re overjoyed too. Loki wants to date you. Last night wasn’t some sleep-deprived misunderstanding. You’re on the same page.

“So like if we went out for hotdogs in Central Park and ice cream, that’d be our first date?”

Loki tilts his head with a questioning smile. “You really want our first date to be disgusting hot dogs from an unsanitary street merchant?”

You laugh because you’re nervous. “No. I know you don’t like hotdogs. I know that. I just…” You take a deep breath. “I don't need anything fancy. I don't want anything fancy. I…” And your smile goes soft. “I just want to spend time with you. Actually, I’d be more fine with ordering in hibachi and turning on the PS4 and crushing you at Star Wars Battlefront, and then going out for ice cream. Bad or awkward things tend to happen when I go out with the Avengers.”

Loki laughs. “You do seem to be our bad luck charm.”

“Right, and I don't want to mess up our first date. So let’s stay in.”

“That sounds wonderful.” Loki smiles, and your heart flutters in your chest. He's still in his pajamas just as relaxed as can be in the kitchen as the two of you plan your date, and it's unbelievable in a sense that last night’s game turned into this.

“I should go get dressed.” He moves forward. “Is it frowned upon to kiss on the first date?”

You shake your head, and he takes a step closer.

“Right, and the date begins when exactly?” He tilts his head and narrows his eyes and that shouldn’t be as attractive as it is.

“Now,” you say, blinking up at him.

He smiles, slow and sexy, and you find yourself leaning toward him. He steps close, a hand on your waist.

“I'm going to kiss you now.”

“Yep.”

He dips his head down and his hand comes up and tilts your chin up. His lips are warm against yours and you melt against him. He slides his hand from your chin to your neck before sliding around to your shoulder, providing his arm as a cushion for your head. It’s the softest, most gentlest kiss, and you never want it to end but end it must as all good things do.

Loki pulls away with a small soft smile on his lips and you lean up and kiss him again, just a simple press of the lips to his. He grins and laughs. And you laugh too, staring into his blue eyes and hoping that that kind of a kiss will happen a hundred times again. You’ll never tire of it, never tire of Loki. And you get the feeling he feels the same about you.

#swoonjune2021 #day 28 #reader fic #loki x reader #domestic fluff #loki x gender neutral reader #loki x gn!reader #loki #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #avengers #loki fic #mcu fic #loki oneshot #loki laufeyson oneshot

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

the armoured!captain brainrot has grabbed me by the throat and pushed me up against the wall

(but in reality just any hurt/comfort where y/n is struggling will have me HOOKED. also this ended up a tad long oops)

imagine cap still putting on the suit, no matter how much physical pain it causes. imagine them ignoring mark begging to take it off and just rest for a day. or at the very least a few hours to let their body relax.

imagine them just getting angry at mark cuz theres a clear reason they wear the suit (in my HC its the captain being insecure cuz i too, would wear a heave ass suit if it meant noone can see how i actually look) and they REFUSE to let thr crew see them suit-less

imagine them just collapsing while doing some repairs to the ship. they pushed it too far and are truly at 0% energy right now. fully exausted.

imagine the crew panicking cuz what the FUCK did their beloved captain just DIE

theyre then dragged off to the ship medbay so the crew can figure out whats going on, but only mark can go in with them, since hes the closest to them

imagine mark trying so hard to take off their heavy as hell suit in the medbay area so the doctors can do a check and struggling cuz its THAT heavy. all the while his hands are shaking from fear of what may be happening to the cap.

i see the cap just being in a mini-coma for a few days due to how much of a toll the suit took on them. the whole time mark is next to them, not moving an INCH unless its a true emergency.

when they wake up, tears all around the ship. mark is relieved his s/o is finally awake and doing better, the crew is crying cuz YES their handsome/beautiful captain didnt die.

they'll probably get orders from the doc to NOT wear the suit for a while. let their body rest, goddamnit.

maybe they go in a cryo sleep for the time their suit is off-limits. just so the crew cant see their actual body. see their actual face. hear their true voice. maybe the cap thinks the crew will hate them if they find out how they really look and sound like.

so into the cryo sleep they go. maybe a week or so, depending on what the doctor said. and they lock the chamber so that noone can actually reach them/wake them up. maybe mark ends up putting up signs that resemble the "dont wake the captain, the captain needs their sleep" pages.

and once they finally wake up and get out, BAM immediate hugs. i bet mark would have been scared shitless because what if the captain is still not okay.

i bet the suit was also hidden somewhere so they cant hurt their body any more than it has been already. in turn they were given a smaller suit. still has a voice changer and their face cannot be seen. its just smaller and lighter.

turns out mark had it made while they were in cryo sleep, just desperate to have something resembling the old suit but with (hopefully) no pain attached to it.

maybe the crew was also warned that if they see a new face on board, thats the captain and to NEVER talk about their physical appearance or voice. that'll just make them go back to the suit.

in conclusion, hold armoured!captain gentle like hamberger <3

Awwww

I imagine this new suit is like the one on the U.S.A site (minus the cracked glass) with the same kind of shoulder guards the old suit had (smaller ofc)

Mark would def feel bad for whining for them to take off the suit but he'd try to reassure them they're still handsome/beautiful and everyone on the ship would agree

#clanask

[theshelbyclan]

Brotherly Discomfort

Summary: After ‘the talk’, your brothers are adamant to protect you, but you throw yet another curveball their way. Part 2 to Growing Pains

(Gif by @nofckingfighting​)  A/N: This is part 2 to my most popular fic Growing Pains and I used anon’s request: Could you do a Shelby sis story where she’s a lesbian and in love with a woman and her family doesn’t know. The family is trying to get her into an arranged marriage with a man and she can’t figure out how to tell them she’s a lesbian cause she feels they won’t except her? Sorry if that’s too much. Love your writing so much btw!! Thanks for this request babes, hope I did it justice :)  Words: 2387

*** “Right, Y/N, sit down,” Tommy sighed deeply and pointed at a single chair by the kitchen table, “We need to talk.” As you sat down, three brothers loomed over you. Tommy lit a cigarette like his life depended on it, Arthur couldn’t stand still if his life depended on it and John seemed to have forgotten what his life actually depended on, so he just stood there, unsure of everything. “We’re having another talk,” you stated. The last one, only a few days ago, was still fresh in your mind. 

“We are,” you brother confirmed. Arthur took off his cap like he was attending a funeral and stumbled, “We, uhm… We’ve had an idea.” “Christ,” Polly mumbled from behind her newspaper and you couldn’t agree more. “The thing is,” John finally spoke, “We’ve been worried after we… talked.” “Right,” you nodded, “Because of he subject of our conversation?” “It’s not just that!” your brother continued, with a slight frantic edge to his voice, “You’re growing up, but you’re still running around with the dogs at all hours. You won’t listen to anyone, do whatever you please…” Tommy continued where John faltered, “The truth is, Y/N, you’re getting to be too wild.” “Oh, fuck off, Tom,” and you got up with every intention to leave the room. “Sit down,” he said sternly, “We can’t have another Ada situation.” “Situation?” your eyebrows shot up, “What do you fucking mean by a fucking situation?” “The baby, Y/N,” Arthur explained. “I’m sorry,” you were boiling inside now, “but please explain: was the baby the problem or the man she had the baby with the problem? Or possibly, maybe, the fact that you three had no say in the matter?!” “That’s not the point,” John could feel this conversation wasn’t going as planned, “The thing is we couldn’t stop it!” Polly scoffed behind you, so at least you felt like someone was on your side. After a few moments of silence, your anger got the better of you and you slammed a hand down on the table in a very Tommy manner, “So what did you three fucking geniuses come up with?” Tommy pointed at you menacingly, “You fucking watch your mouth. You may be sixteen but I will still wash your mouth out with soap if you don’t mind that tongue…” “Minding my tongue…” you repeated, rolling your eyes, “Fine. So, what’s the plan? Arthur? John? Are we going back to the old ways and am I being married off to some good gypsy boy?” You turned around at Polly and laughed at your own joke, but when the room fell silent once again, you realised you’d hit the jackpot. Arthur had known you since the day you were born. He’d been twelve at the time and he could recognise every little expression on your face. Like when you were little, you used to scrunch up your nose just before you were about to cry for hunger. Or when you were sad, a small wobble in your chin just before the tears. Or when you were angry, a wrinkle in your forehead gave away the tantrum that was about to follow. This was happening right now. So he held up both hands and said, “Y/N, he’s from a good family…” “Nope,” you said, adamantly. “He is,” John confirmed gently, “and he has horses.” “Fucking no,” you shook your head. Tommy sighed, “We already made the deal.” “You promised your sister, just like that. That’s low, even coming from you, Thomas,” Polly’s cold voice sounded. If there was one person who could break his tough exterior, it was his aunt, “Well, what the fuck should we have done, Pol? Let her run wild, like you, eh?” But you stood up and walked over to Tommy. This was the man who had raised you, cared for you and disciplined you most of all, but right now, none of it mattered. So you slapped him hard, once. “Undo it Tommy,” you hissed, “Undo it or I’ll fucking cut you.” In the background you could hear Arthur mumble at once, “Okay, we’ll undo it…” “Give me one good reason,” your brother’s face, now only inches away, remained emotionless. You sighed and decided to throw all caution to the wind. “Anna,” you said, calmly. “What?” John asked immediately. So you repeated, voice raised, “Anna!” Three frowning brother stared at you, not understanding at all. “Remember when you asked me what hisname was, last week?” you called out exasperated. “’John’, wasn’t it?” Arthur looked at you. “No, it wasn’t fucking ‘John’, Arthur, she just said so,” John explained to his oldest brother. Tommy lit another cigarette, “What’s your point, Y/N?” You pointed at your neck where the nearly faded hickey could still be seen if you knew, “The name of the girl who gave me this is Anna.” “That would be bloody fantastic actually, because we wouldn’t have to worry anymore about a baby situation…” John squinted, “I think she’s serious…” “Oooooh fuck…” Arthur sighed, suddenly connecting the dots; “We’ve been keeping an eye on the wrong fucking people, John.” But John burst out laughing, “Didn’t see that one coming, did you, Tommy?” Slowly, your brother sat down and started smoking his second cigarette, “Pol, contact Madame Ross, tell her the wedding is off.” But Aunt Polly was having none of it, “You got us into this mess, you can fix it.” And then fear settled suddenly into the pit of your stomach. You looked at Tommy and asked softly, “Are you mad?” “Nope,” he said, head dropped down into his hands. “Disappointed?” “No, I’m not disappointed. But you should’ve told us, eh?” You shrugged, “Didn’t think you’d… approve.” “Why?” John asked, “We don’t care that you like women.” And all the love you had in you went out to your brother in that very moment. “Y/N,” Arthur started and he looked so angry that uncertainty took over again, “Why the fuck did you not tell us before we… explained?” “Because it was hilarious,” Polly commented unhelpfully. John started giggling again, “Fucking unnecessary is what it was.” “Arthur?” you asked, fear seeping into your voice. He sighed deeply, fidgeting with his hat, “It’s not the women, Y/N, I don’t care about that. It’s you and… anyone really. I don’t like the idea of you with anyone. Remember when she used to play with the coals, remember John?” “Yeah, I remember,” John smiled. “Black like the night she’d be!” Arthur remembered out loud, “Sweet and innocent.” “Well, she’s not anymore,” Polly sipped her tea. “I fucking see that and I don’t like it,” you eldest brother’s smile faded quickly. “Right,” Tommy raised his head again, “Guess we need to change our approach.” “There really no need…” you started. But he continued, ignoring you, “So you like girls, eh?” “Yep,” you confirmed meekly. “Only girls?” You nodded, “Well, one in particular.” Arthur looked at Tommy like he would have all the answers, “Now what, Tom?” You could now start to see the humour in all of it. Your brothers’ faces were an absolute picture! John could hardly contain his laughter, Tommy looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and Arthur was filled with the absolute dread at another conversation like the one you had last week. “Oh, come on!” John called out, “I’m sure we could offer some advice!” He winked at you and a smile spread across your face. “Yeah!” you said, “I mean you all like women, right? This should be even easier!” “It’s not,” Arthur muttered. “I like women,” John said to no one in particular. “What about you, Tommy?” you asked your brother sweetly. But he just rolled his eyes and continued smoking. A part of you wanted to joke about him and Alfie, but you decided against it at the last second. “Horses?” you ventured, “Tommy, any advice on this with the famous analogy of horses? “Horses don’t really…” he waved a hand, coughed and stopped talking all together. “Well, at least you don’t have to be afraid of her getting pregnant,” John said to Arthur, who was as white as a sheet now. “That’s right,” he replied in a low voice, “but that’s my entire speech out the window, because there’s no waiting ‘till bloody marriage either…” “Well,” you tried to comfort your older brother, “You did offer me some good advice the last time, Arthur. You said there was no hurry and to not do it unless I wanted to?” “Right! I did say that. That, yes, it still stands!” Arthur looked around the kitchen triumphantly. “And John,” you continued, “you said to not put anything in my mouth unless I wanted to. Sound advice that was, now more than ever!” “Fucking hell,” Arthur crumbled again, “I can’t do this again. Tom, say something.” “Women….” Tommy started off vaguely waving his cigarette around, “they want love.” “We do.” “And they always want to take things slow.” “Can you imagine?” John interrupted, “Two women together? Must take ages…” “You’d be surprised…” you started, but when you saw your other brothers’ faces, you shut your mouth quickly. Tommy glared daggers at his brother and then turned to you, “How did you become an expert all of a sudden, eh?” “Talked to Ada,” you shrugged. “You talked to Ada…” he repeated lowly and threw his head back. “Wait,” John said suddenly, “Is this why you hate wearing dresses?” “Or why you drink whiskey like a man?” Arthur added, carefully. “That’s just because she’s a Shelby,” Polly explained matter-of-factly. “Or why you never sit on chairs?” John continued, “Or hang out at the factory all the time! Or why you always talk about votes for women…” You held up a hand to stop your brother, “None of that has anything to do with me liking women, John. That’s just… me.” “So what does have to do with you liking women?” your other brother asked in his typical low voice. “Me liking women…?” “So how does it work exactly?” John furrowed his brows, “Like, without… a man there?” “John,” Arthur warned him with a grumble. “Well, both people are enjoying themselves, for starters…” you replied in earnest. “Fucking hell,” the eldest interrupted, “She’s turning into Ada, she bloody is.” “Have you never seen two women together, Arthur?” you asked innocently, “Not even in London?” “They’re all mad bastards down in London, Y/N, the things I’ve seen there…” “Well, imagine me now.” Tommy had just taken a sip of his whiskey and practically choked on the spot, “That’s fucking it. You’re not to go near the BSA again!” “Why?” you called out, “It’s not like all the women in the world are gathered at the BSA!” “I will not have you behaving,” he struggled to find the words but finally spit, “like those fucking women in London!” “Don’t worry, Tommy,” you tried to comfort him, “I’m still… we haven’t actually…” “Oh, thank God,” Arthur sank down in his chair. “Well, when you do, just be gentle, alright?” John offered some advice, “And light a candle! Women love candles.” “Candles, check,” you noted. Tommy downed his whiskey, recomposed himself and added, “And make sure they’re in the mood first…” “To get ‘happy’,” you said, “like Arthur said last time,” “Yes,” he sighed deeply.

“Cut your nails,” John said out of the blue, “Esme told me.”

Arthur turned to his brother, “What the bloody hell do nails have to do with anything?”

“Well, it’s for when you…”

But Tommy silenced you with a gesture, “Please, Y/N, don’t.”

“Right,” and the quiet returned in the small kitchen. Well, at least now they knew, so that terrifying bit was out of the way. Apart from that, you weren’t quite sure if this was going great, because your brothers seemed absolutely petrified and slightly annoyed at your sudden revelation. Maybe it would’ve been better if you hadn’t told them. Then again, marrying a ‘good gypsy boy’ was the last thing you wanted in life. So maybe you could lighten the mood just a little.

“I have a better idea,” a sudden glint came into your eyes, “How about I offer all of you some advice!” The tables had turned already and this couldn’t possibly get any more awkward.

“Nope,” Arthur stood up and promptly marched out of the kitchen, talking to himself, “I can’t. That’s my baby sister and I just fucking can’t...”

“Arthur, where are you going?” Polly called after him, mirth clearly audible in her voice. And he replied, “I’m going to find this Anna, make sure she’s from a good family…” And then he was gone.

Tommy looked from you to Polly for a few seconds before he cleared his throat and mumbled something about business. Polly smirked at you and his face was full of annoyance at it all, “I need to get back to Dangerous. The horse. Tell me some other time, eh?”

“Tommy,” you asked carefully, “Are you sure you’re not mad about me liking women?”

“Princess, I honestly don’t give a fuck who you like,” he said, while putting on his coat and hat, “I just want to meet this Anna and if she hurts you, I’ll still kill her. None of that has changed, eh?”

This was strangely comforting to you.

And just as you were about to offer some unwanted advice, he left the kitchen in a hurry and called over his shoulder, “If you have any questions, Ada apparently has all the fucking answers!”

So you turned to your aunt, “That went well, didn’t it?”

“At least the wedding’s off.”

“Thank fuck,” you smirked and Polly smiled at you encouragingly, “You don’t mind, Aunt Pol, do you?”

“I’m with Tommy,” she said returning to her stern voice, “The fact that it’s a woman won’t make me hesitate.”

“Right,” you nodded, “She makes me happy, though.”

“Good,” Aunt Polly continued to read the newspaper, “Bring her over for tea. Let’s make the boys really uncomfortable, shall we?”

Still laughing, you stood up with the intention of getting on with your homework, when you suddenly noticed John was still sitting on the chair in the back of the kitchen.

“What do you want?” you asked him bluntly.

“I’m waiting,” he said, hands upturned, “You promised me some advice, remember?”

***

Masterlist

#Growing pains #peaky blinder imagine #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders #shelby!sister #sister!shelby #shelby sister #shelby sister imagine #sister shelby #shelby sis #tommy shelby #thomas shelby #tommy shelby x reader #thomas shelby x reader #arthur shelby #john shelby #john shelby x reader #polly shelby #polly gray #ada shelby #ada thorne #peaky blinders fluff #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders headcanon

[stanknotstark]

Pulse Pt.1 (Loki x Reader)

So I got this idea from a creative writing blog that you can find here. Basically the prompt is feeling their pulse. Enjoy! 

NOW COMPLETE. Check masterlist for part 2!

Summary: Your pulse calms Loki down. Multiple scenarios where Loki finds solace in your pulse. 

The first time it happens it’s completely normal. You had been fighting next to Loki when you had been shot. The shot of energy had gone straight through and left a small hole in your abdominal area. Luckily it missed all your vital organs somehow but you were still on the ground in agony. You’re curled into a fetal position and too quiet for Loki’s liking.

Loki ran up and threw up a shield, then put two fingers on your neck and you watched, uncurling, as this man counted mentally. When he is satisfied with your pulse he looks down at you, noticing your movement. “Don’t think of checking out now, the battle has just begun.” He smirks.

“I think I’ll stay right here, hurts less when I don’t move.” You groan.

Loki rolls his eyes at your dramatics, he’s definitely seen you worse off than now. 

“Must I carry you? Choose wisely because depending on your answer, you may ruin my reputation.” Loki says. 

You smile coyly up at the god. “Ahhhh I can’t feel my legs, I see the light!” 

Loki laughs under his breath but picks you up and as he stands his shield dissipates. He starts making his way towards the medical team that thankfully set up as the Avengers started their attack on Dr. Doom’s invasion. 

You’re thoroughly enjoying Loki carrying you around like you weigh nothing. He nimbly steps and jumps over fallen rubble making sure not to jostle you too much and make you hurt more. 

You have half a mind to hold a finger to your ear and activate your headpiece. 

“Cap, I’m down and out, You’ll need someone to cover the right side of the attack until Loki can get back into position.”

“Why is Loki out?” You hear Tony ask. 

“Because he’s carrying me.” You fail to realize how bad this’ll sound considering you’ve walked off a field with a broken tibia and a gunshot wound to the chest.

“What hit you that hard?” Steve yells, small explosions in the background of his audio but the concern still very evident in his voice.

“Uh....” You look up at Loki who glances at you and smirks. He can’t activate his headpiece and he probably likes watching you explain that you demanded to be carried for no good reason. 

So you do what any brat would do and blame Loki. “Loki was very concerned about me not hurting myself further. I told him I could walk but he insisted. I’m fine, just a hole in my stomach!” 

When you look up at the god again he is clenching his jaw instead of smirking, his eyes stay forwards but you know, oh you know, you’re going to be punished for this. 

~~~ 

The next time Loki does it you’re in the middle of this limbo state of liking and not liking each other romantically. Liking each other comes naturally but when one or both of you realize this is a concoction for a bad idea (it’s really not you’re probably both just in denial) you both avoid each other for a few days before coming around again when you miss each other too much. 

With this new limbo thing going on you both get random cuddles. Meaning it’s completely normal that you’re laying on the couch with Loki behind you. The god breathes into your neck softly, seeing as he has fallen asleep. You frown when you realize Loki has a hand wrapped under your waist that comes to your front and across your chest to rest on your pulse point on your neck. He has his hand there and from the outside it might look possessive. However, you know better and realize the god is soothed by being able to feel your pulse point. 

You tab this in your head and relax again. You play on your phone for awhile. Natasha makes her way through the living room to the kitchen without a word. When she passes again, this time with a bowl of cereal, she stops to look at you two from the other side of the couch. 

You look at Natasha without bumping Loki and raise a brow at the assassin. She chews on some cereal then purses her lips after swallowing. “You guys ever going to, uh, work this thing out? I’ve got a bet going on and I’d like to win it.”

You can’t help the snort that comes out of you causing Loki to huff in his sleep then curl into you more and his hold on your neck becomes a little tighter. You look from Loki to Natasha with wide eyes. 

“It’s a work in progress.” Is all you give her and she nods and stalks off. 

~~~

The next time Loki does it it’s by your hand. Loki is fighting someone from Asgard, you don’t know his name, but he knows exactly what to say to rile up Loki. Loki starts attacking him with pure rage and unrepentant emotion. When Loki gets the chance he knocks the guy down and straddles his hips, beating the life out of him with his fists even though he’s already knocked out. 

You rush to Loki and grab one of his hands. Before he does something he regrets you open his hand and place it on your pulse. It takes you a few tries to find it through his hands but when you do find it Loki stops beating the guy with his other hand and just sits there breathing haggardly with his eyes clenched tight. 

You say nothing and let Loki feel your pulse as long as he needs. It’s not long though, Loki’s breath is normal and he opens his eyes and looks at you. Standing from the Asgardian’s bloody body and pulling you into him into a hug. You wrap your arms around Loki and he holds your head to his neck, breathing in your scent through your hair.

“Quick thinking.” Loki chokes out. 

“Mmhmm.” You hum into his neck.

When the Avengers show up to apprehend the Asgardian you go to pull from Loki’s embrace, knowing he’s a bit iffy showing PDA in front of the team. What shocks you is that Loki grabs your wrist and stops you from getting too far. You share a look through your eyes and Loki’s hand drifts from your wrist to your hand instead. 

You let the look of shock pass over your face and then smile at Loki and hold his hand back. When you turn around Steve in looking at your hands but quickly looks up to both of you and nods at the Asgardian on the ground. 

“Was that really necessary?” Steve asks as you hear Tony in the background trying to rouse the beaten man. 

“Hey, stupid, wake up!” You hear causing you to snort and bring a hand up to cover your mouth.

Steve rolls his eyes and looks at Loki for an answer. 

“A lapse in judgement. I merely thought he was more of a hazard than he actually was.” Loki lets the excuse slip from his mouth like he truly means it. You definitely understand why he is called silver tongued. 

Steve nods with a disapproving look on his face, because he lives with Loki and knows him well enough, but leaves the situation at that and goes over to Tony. 

“Stop slapping him! You’re supposed to wake them up gently!” Steve yells at Tony.

Tony scoffs, “Dude deserves it, he really thought he could beat Loki in hand to hand? Why are all Asgardian's so arrogant?” 

“Tony!” Steve yells after another loud slapping noise rings in the air. 

You and Loki begin to walk towards the extraction point. Loki has brought you into his side, his right arm around your shoulders, hugging you into him. His left hand holds onto your wrist, across his body, settled over your pulse point. 

“When did you figure it out?” Loki asks you as you both walk. 

You glance up at the god but decide to keep your eyes on the ground so you don’t slip on anything. That would be embarrassing. 

“You weren’t awake when I figured it out. We were cuddling in the living room and you had fallen asleep with your hand over my neck. Kinda pieced it together then.” You shrugged. 

Loki gives a small ‘Ah’ but doesn’t implore. 

~~~

#loki x reader #loki #unfinished #wip #reader insert #prompt #pulse #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #my writing

[camxnoel-updates]

Cameron Monaghan brought the character of Ian Gallagher to life on Showtime’s hit series, Shameless. The series aired for a total of 11 seasons after originally premiering in 2011. It ranked as the network’s no. 1 comedy, longest-running series, and had the youngest-skewing audience of any Showtime series. Monaghan also joined two legendary universes with roles in both Gotham and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which I got to ask him about too!

The final season of SHAMELESS finds the Gallagher family and the South Side at a crossroads, with changes caused by the COVID pandemic, gentrification, and aging to reconcile. As Frank confronts his own mortality and family ties in his alcoholic and drug-induced twilight years, Lip struggles with the prospect of becoming the family’s new patriarch. Newlyweds Ian (Cameron Monaghan) and Mickey (Noel Fisher) are figuring out the rules and responsibilities of being in a committed relationship while Deb embraces her individuality and single motherhood. Carl finds an unlikely new career in law enforcement and Kevin and V struggle to decide whether a hard life on the South Side is worth fighting for.

Along with the final season, fans also got a six-episode series that featured new Shameless scenes juxtaposed with a retrospective look at each character’s journey over the prior 10 seasons, titled, Shameless Hall of Shame. The first episode followed Ian and Mickey, showcasing their unique relationship and its evolution from a teen fling into a loving, complicated marriage.

I was able to chat with the actor over zoom and ask him all of my burning questions regarding the series finale, Ian and Mickey’s future, the show’s open ending, the representation his character provided to those watching, what he kept from the set, his future projects, and so much more! Keep reading to find out everything he told me.

So first of all, I want to say a huge congrats to you for wrapping Shameless after 11 seasons and bringing this character to life, who has inspired so many and that so many relate to. I wanted to ask, what has your time on the show meant to you and how would you describe how it helped you grow as an actor?

Cameron Monaghan: I mean, it’s so difficult to distill 11 years into some sort of concise answer, but it’s meant a lot for so many reasons. I think that obviously it’s been important for my career and my life in a sense of how it’s not only given me exposure but also given all of us a platform as performers to be able to tell interesting and challenging stories and to really develop and grow. Obviously, we had a couple of old pros on the show– when I say old pros, I’m not calling them old, just that they’re professionals and they’ve been doing it for a long time, but like William H. Macy, Joan Cusack, and a number of people who had very storied careers. Then we had actors on the show who had never appeared on anything prior and for a lot of us, we were somewhere in the middle, where we’d been working for a number of years, but hadn’t been given the opportunities to really put ourselves out there in such a significant way.

So being able to get an audience over the course of 11 years– and the show grew steadily, it was a marginal success at first, but it wasn’t until like season 4 or 5 that it really started to be seen by people and really connect on a larger platform, and a lot of that had to do with Netflix. When that happens we had such an influx of people kind of saying how they related to it and I think that that’s something that I’ve really taken away– I think we’ve all taken away, to be able to hear a lot of other people’s stories and how they’ve connected these stories in entirely different ways. Everyone has had different favorite characters or storylines and they have brought their own personal experiences to that, but for people to say that they feel seen or heard in some ways by these stories, I think is very special. You know, the character that I was playing was an LGBT love story, as well as a story about mental illness, and coping and struggling with that. I had so many positive responses from people regarding those things, and it was amazing to hear people’s responses. So I think that not only was I able to grow as an actor but being able to hear that response and feedback helps you grow as a human being too. I guess that’s what one of my major takeaways is.

What was that final day of shooting like for you, and how did you feel when you officially wrapped?

It was a bit surreal. I don’t think it really set in at first. It’s always funny when you wrap on a project, I feel like it comes in waves, and with something like a TV show, you start to feel it on the last few episodes of like, “Oh, wow, it’s going to be over.” You start trying to find your little ways of saying goodbye to people and understanding that these conversations are obviously not the last for everyone; we’re still close with each other, but you start to recognize that within the context of the show they’ll be your last so that’s a difficult thing. I’ve never been particularly good at saying goodbye, you know? I feel like in general, I’m kind of a person that just likes to be like, “I’m just going to walk away from it cause I don’t know what else to do really.”

So, we were shooting pretty late at night and we were all there hanging out and cracking jokes, and it was just of like, “Oh, I guess that’s it.” We all kind of looked at each other like, “Well, what do we do now?” A bunch of us stuck around for a few hours afterward, we popped a bottle of champagne, and we sat in each others’ trailers and just kinda hung out until pretty early in the morning, the next day. Then we’ve all kind of just been hanging out and seeing each other since. Everyone’s been really busy, thankfully. So we’ve been traveling and going to different cities for work, but when we’ve been in town we’ve been trying to see each other. I had dinner with Jeremy and Ethan, who played my brothers on the show last week. Noel Fisher, I just saw yesterday. I’m going to see Shanola Hampton in a few days. We’re all still staying in touch with each other is what I’ll say.

Were you personally satisfied with the ending of the show? I think it was very open-ended, which was kind of nice and left a lot open for the future. And was there anything you wanted to see for your character that we weren’t able to?

Endings are difficult in general, but I feel like, especially with a show like Shameless, which is a show about a slice of life and sort of how existence doesn’t really fall into a perfect narrative; it tends to be messy and kind of just continue in spite of itself, and it’s a stream of these little victories and these constant mistakes. So you can’t really cap off a pure ending to a story like that. I think that what John Wells tried to do with writing it is not really conclude the stories. He concludes certain aspects, but the way that he explained it to us is he wanted it to feel like if you were walking through the streets of Chicago, maybe you might bump into these characters. Maybe they’re still out there and maybe they’re still doing things. Some of us had more resolution than others.

I would actually say that the Ian and Mickey storyline was one that did have a fair amount of resolution for the final episode. It was about their anniversary, how they were going to deal with their future, and they’ve kind of figured out some sort of life with each other. There are still large questions, whether or not they’re going to have kids and what the terms of their marriage will entail in the future, but those are questions that are lifelong questions, and ones that I think that we know these characters well enough and we understand their relationships well enough that we can draw our own conclusions for. I think there is something beautiful about the fact that the audience will project what their future for these characters will be.

I think it was a challenging final season because of so many extenuating factors in the world. All shows, businesses, everything was trying frantically to keep up with a changing landscape, and the fact that we were able to make it in spite of all of those things, I think is a victory in itself; one that we are all proud of and happy with. I do think there’s still a future, years out, where we might return to these characters and explore them further. I think that I’m happy putting them to bed for now, I think we all are, but I would like to maybe check in with these characters in 5 or 10 years, and just kind of see where they’re at and what they’re doing.

Kind of like a little Shameless movie, just to play catch up for a little bit.

Yeah, I think that’s something that is kind of more possible now with these streaming networks. They’ve done it with a few series, to sometimes success and sometimes mixed results, but I do think there is a possibility of a reunion season or something like that, depending on where the show fits into the public consciousness in a few years, you know? It’s an open question, but one I’d be excited to see.

How you would describe Ian’s evolution and journey on the show?

I think that Ian has come a long way in terms of confidence and assuredness in himself and his own decisions. I think that’s what a lot of the exploration of the character was, especially in the middle seasons between seasons like 3 to 8 or 9, are this guy who sort of just doesn’t necessarily know what he wants for himself and he’s dealing with a bunch of surprises about himself that he doesn’t necessarily understand, or hasn’t really come to terms with. I think it’s amazing to see Ian in these earlier episodes where he’s kind of getting kicked around by his relationships and by his family. He’s kind of a forgotten kid a little bit. He’s like a middle child, who’s just sort of– people aren’t really looking out for him. His brother does to a certain extent, but also his brother is kind of telling him what he wants for himself and Ian isn’t as active.

At a certain point, he starts to really come into his own as an adult and as a human being. I think it’s amazing how we see him as not only a big brother by the end of the series, but also sort of– there’s something a bit paternal about him. He becomes a bit of a father figure, even a little bit in his relationships. I think it’s interesting how Mickey was always sort of the commanding force and deciding factor for so much of the series; when Ian was really struggling with mental illness and down in the dumps, Mickey is the kind of guy who was looking after him, but by the end of the series, Mickey is a bit childlike in certain ways. Ian is kind of protecting him to a certain extent, and even with his older brother, Lip, Ian is sort of looking out for him in a slightly paternal way, which I think is kind of interesting. He really comes a long way in sort of being confident enough in himself to start looking out for other people that I think is a really great quality. It makes him a character who has made a fair amount of mistakes but mistakes that we understand, and I think that ultimately he’s a guy that I understand and really relate to because he does have this quality to him.

So I have to ask you some questions about Ian and Mickey. I personally love them together, they were one of the reasons I started watching the show. In the end, as you said, we kind of get some closure, but also an open ending with them and it’s a happy one; they’re together and celebrating their anniversary. In your head, what do you think that their future holds? Do you think kids are in the picture; do you think they’re going to be parents? Ideally, what is your version of their happy ending, if you could create it?

I think that they both still need to do some work. I would say that they need to do work as a couple in their marriage still of just defining the terms of what is it that they want financially, sexually, intimately, personally, all of these things. It’s a show full of people who aren’t great at communication or dealing with their own feelings– I mean to a certain extent, most human beings aren’t, but these guys, especially, come from a rough background and they have that tendency of just kind of wanting to push that stuff down. Ian has really opened up Mickey and Mickey to a certain extent has really opened up Ian over the course of the series, but I still don’t think they’re fully all the way there. Mickey has a lot of emotional baggage when it comes to parenthood, his father, and dealing with responsibility.

I don’t know if Mickey is fully there. Hopefully, he would be one day in the future. And hopefully, Ian would be patient enough to give him the space to make that decision and to not want to rush into it. I do think that it would be something in their future. Parenthood was a huge motivating factor for Ian earlier in the series, going so far as to steal someone’s baby at some point because he wants to be a father. I would hope that they would be able to provide that for him and for themselves, but there’s no way to know, we have to sort of make that assumption for ourselves, but I think so.

Ian and Mickey have been this fan-favorite couple that means so much to the LGBTQ+ community in terms of representation. What was the moment that you personally started rooting for them?

I think it was pretty early. I was rooting for Ian from the first episode, from the pilot, but the second that Mickey gets introduced to the show, he brought such a fun dynamic with him. Obviously, a massive amount of charisma that was coming from Noel Fisher. The scenes were always fun, exciting, and felt steeped in a lot of dramatic tension. Whether or not they were destined to be together was kind of a question that still was developing. In the first season to the third season, the Mickey character is pretty rough emotionally and physically; he is at points pretty, extremely abusive in a way that is great for a character and for a story, but if I was talking to Ian as a person in real life, I would probably say, “Get the hell away from this guy. He’s awful for you.”

But within the context of the story, we’re able to get the internal life of these characters and we understand them well enough to really want to be rooting for them and see them succeed. It builds into this pretty epic love story of these characters that really do feel kind of intertwined by fate and something greater. It feels like you have these forces pulling for them in a way that you want with every fiber of your being to see it work out for them because you care for them. So obviously, Noel and I had been rooting for these characters the entire time, but it was really fun playing some of the ridiculousness of the situations of the two of them, where they were just very at odds with each other at times. It was a joy bouncing off of each other in both the highs and the lows of the character.

Is there sort of a message that you hope their love story gives to viewers that see themselves in these characters?

Well, I think the aspects of the characters, especially for Mickey, that I’m sure a lot of people relate to, and it is sort of the greatest tragedy of the character, is how he is deeply in the closet and he feels that he can’t embrace his own self and also this beautiful love because of this situation that he’s in; a traumatic home life, specifically an abusive father, and also an environment that doesn’t allow him to be what he wants to be. I guess the message that I do hope that people who are relating to that get is that there are places where you can be accepted and there are better options for you, and sometimes that takes time, but as cliched as it is, it does get better. So hopefully people are able to find these safe environments for themselves to be able to improve the quality of life and to get better situations. I hope that people find hope in the story ultimately.

Another relationship of Ian’s that I have to discuss is his relationship with the whole Gallagher family; that was a focus of the series since day one. What was your favorite part of their dynamic and playing off that?

Obviously, the chaos of the family is always really fun to play. We had these scenes that were kind of an amazing balancing act of like 8 or 9 people in a scene, all messing around with these different storylines that are bouncing off of each other, intertwining, and you have this really biting sharp satirical dialogue that all had a very specific rhythm to it and was a sort of flow that was established early in the show that was kind of kept across the entire series; one that was a genuine joy as a performer to play. But I think that specifically the relationship that I’ve always been a fan of and I love from the start, is probably– it’s definitely one of my favorite relationships on the show– was the relationship between Ian and Lip.

There’s not a lot of depictions of brotherhood and intimacy between men that are deeply sensitive, close, and uncomplicated. Those are definitely scenes that I felt very personally moved by, of two brothers who have just had a world of shit, a lot of complicated and messed up things that have been dropped on their heads that they’ve been dealing with for the entirety of their lives, but they’ve sort of made a pact that they were just gonna be there for each other no matter what. If they weren’t there for each other, who knows if they would have survived. I think that there’s something really amazing about those scenes in that they’re just very open with each other, and that’s something that’s established right from the start and was kind of one of those key relationships for the show that survived until the very last episode and that I’m very proud of, cause I do think that those are some of my personal favorite scenes of the show.

Here’s a fun three-part question: most challenging, fun, and insane storyline for you as an actor?

Most challenging would probably have to be… we reached a point in the series around season 8 and they were trying to contextualize the characters in a modern way, put them into new circumstances, but try to retain what the characters were, but they’ve moved a lot from where they originally were. We were at a point where we were getting so many new writers onto the series, and the show I feel struggled for a second, which happens with any series that’s been on for a while. It felt like there was a point where they didn’t know what they wanted to do with Ian. There were a couple of episodes where I was kind of looking at the story and being like, “What are we doing here? It doesn’t really feel like anything is happening with him and we’re kind of floating across these relationships.” I wasn’t sure what we were trying to say, but that being said, that is kind of true to life, to a certain degree, where we do find ourselves sometimes in these ruts where we don’t know what we’re doing with our relationships, our lives, and ourselves. There is a little bit of a struggle there and that is kind of real to a certain degree, and I do think having those episodes make when they started finding the way with the character and relationships again, kind of more satisfying cause he sort of loses his way and he comes back. So it was kind of a challenge, but I think it all worked out ultimately.

Craziest would have to be… so this is one that no one would even know is like a thing really, no one would even think of it as a thing, but the scene in the pilot episode, Lip and Ian jump out of like a window and they run out of a house to escape an angry parent, right? And they’re kind of running in a rush. So they run out in their socks, down the street, and it’s the middle of January in Chicago and the streets are covered in mud, water, and ice. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever felt in my life that I actually thought my feet were going to like fall off. I thought we were going to have to amputate a toe because of frostbite. We did the scene a bunch of times, and because Jeremy and I were young, we were just sort of trying to be tough, just like, “Yeah, whatever, it’s not a problem. We can do this over and over, not a big deal.” Then I definitely learned a lesson of like, when something is a problem, you have to say, it’s a problem.

Most fun… I don’t know if I can distill it to just one scene. I think the most fun was just getting to interact with all of the wildly different personalities of our show, and just kind of get to sit around and hang out with everyone. There were times that we would just be laughing so hard that one of us would start and we just end up crying, laughing. Usually, it was because of Howey cracking jokes or something like that, but it could be just the dumbest to smallest thing, but it’s the kind of thing when you become so comfortable with people, it just starts to happen. Sometimes it was just the downtime and these little small kind of boring or mundane moments that really ended up being some of my favorite experiences.

Did you take anything from the set at all?

I did. So in the final season, there’s a storyline where Frank steals Nighthawks, the Edward Hopper painting, and that was actually done in cooperation with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Edward Hopper estate. They did these really high-resolution prints of it that were then painted over by hand, and they even took pictures of the back and mimicked the way that the canvas wrapped over, the small writing, and everything. It’s a pretty damn good forgery of Nighthawks. So I stole one of those and that’s hanging up in my living room. I also stole one of the mugs cause in the show we’re always having breakfast and drinking coffee, so there are these rooster mugs and I stole one of those.

Since you’re talking to The Nerds of Color, I have to ask you about Star Wars and Gotham. What stood out to you about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order compared to your other work, and what did it mean to you to join that iconic universe?

I mean, what stood out pretty quickly was that it had a tone all of its own. Star Wars is a very specific tone. It has sort of its own language, pacing, style, and rhythm; there’s something very specific about it, something that I’m a big fan of. I grew up watching the Star Wars movies and that was definitely… you know, anytime that you’re jumping onto something with an active and passionate fanbase it’s going to be slightly intimidating. There’s no way around that. Thankfully, I’ve at this point done enough projects with really passionate fanbases to kind of understand what that entails, which is that there’s going to be a lot of opinions. A lot of people are really excited about things and no matter what, even the smallest things, someone’s going to be very, very angry about it. That comes along with the territory, but that’s kind of fun to a certain degree; it’s fun to hear such minutiae and being examined, and these conversations are ones that are being had on set too.

There’s so much conversation between the Lucasfilm story group, Respawn, and EA, who are the production companies behind the game, and also the cast, directors, and everybody involved are sometimes discussing, “How does a person stand? How does one get onto a speeder bike? What kind of sound does this monster make?” And there’s always a genuine deference and respect to the series. We know how much people care about it. We know because we care about it a lot, and everyone on this project are huge fans of the source material. So that was exciting to be a part of, obviously; I mean, that should go without saying. It’s so freaking cool to be a Jedi and to be the face of this massive franchise, and to be able to not only be a part of a really well-known property and part of this large project but also to be able to tell an interesting and intimate story within it. For as bombastic as all of the action is, and as big as the Star Wars universe is, I feel the story of Cal Kestis and the people that he interacts with is a somewhat smaller one and a more intimate one. It’s ultimately, at least for me, a pretty emotionally resonant one and a story that I actually very much care about and relate to. I think that was probably the most exciting part about it, was being able to within the framework of this big machinery of what Star Wars is, still tell a story that might actually affect people and make them feel things, I think was just really cool.

Could you describe how it felt to take on the role of the Joker?

Exciting, intimidating, an honor, and challenging; it’s a role that I didn’t take lightly. I understood what it was, which is that a lot of the people who were seeing me in the role had never heard of me and didn’t know who I was, and it was a way to prove myself and to show off my take of what I could do with this. It was really cool too with that show that we were getting to do something that had never really been done before with the character, which is to show multiple versions and possibilities of what that character could be, and to kind of tip our hat to some of the famous stories that came before, and then kind of give a unique spin and show off some new things with it as well.

Obviously, that show was heightened to a certain degree and kind of existed in this wacky over-the-top violent, but also slightly cartoony universe that was kind of its own little thing. That was really fun to play around with it and to totally get to do something kind of different with that, something that we hadn’t seen before. But I think it was specifically really intimidating because, at that point of casting when I performed the episode in the first season of that show, no one had played the role since Heath Ledger had posthumously won the Oscar for the role. So the only people who had touched it in live-action had been Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, which are just massive, massive shoes to fill and two people that I deeply admired. Again, it’s just sort of a case of respect and wanting to kind of come in, just do my absolute best with the material, and to try to pay a certain level of honor to the people that came before.

Anything you can tease about what you’re going to do next? Any future projects?

Absolutely. It’s always difficult with this stuff because there’s only so much you can say. I can say that I just shot a film that hasn’t been announced yet, but I was out of town shooting it for a while. It’s the starring role in the film, and that will come out to theaters in the near future. I’m also working on another project over the course of the next year that I will be working on and off for. Again, thanks to the joys of NDAs, I can’t actually say what it is. I have a movie that I will be doing in June and then also I’m starting to move a bit behind the camera as well. So I’m working on producing and starring in a feature in August or September. And I’m writing a couple of projects right now as well. So it’s a loaded year for the next year, but it’s all very exciting that’s happening.

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